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Florentino Ameghino | |
|---|---|
 Florentino Ameghino | |
| Born | Giovanni Battista Fiorino Giuseppe Ameghino (1853-09-19)September 19, 1853 |
| Died | August 6, 1911(1911-08-06) (aged 56) |
| Resting place | La Plata Cemetery |
| Nationality | Argentine |
| Awards | Bronze medal at theExposition Universelle (1889) forMammalian Fossils in the Argentine Republic. |
| Scientific career | |
| Fields | Paleontology |
Florentino Ameghino (bornGiovanni Battista Fiorino Giuseppe Ameghino; September 19, 1853 – August 6, 1911) was anArgentinenaturalist,paleontologist,anthropologist andzoologist, whose fossil discoveries on the Argentine Pampas, especially onPatagonia, rank with those made in the western United States during the late 19th century. Along with his two brothers – Carlos and Juan – Florentino Ameghino was one of the most important founding figures in South American paleontology.
From 1887 until his death, Ameghino was passionately devoted to the study of fossil mammals fromPatagonia, with the valuable support of his brotherCarlos Ameghino (1865–1936) who, between 1887 and 1902, made 14 trips to that region, where he discovered and collected numerous fossil faunas and made important stratigraphic observations.
Ameghino was born on September 19, 1853, in Tessi, an hamlet ofMoneglia, a municipality ofLiguria inItaly, in what was then theKingdom of Sardinia and moved to Argentina with his parents when he was 18 months old.[1] Ameghino was a self-taught naturalist, and focused his study on the lands of the southernPampas. He formed one of the largest collections offossils of the world at the time, which served him as base for numerous geological and paleontological studies. Ameghino was a leading pioneer in the development ofphylogenetics and of thepaleontological approach ofevolutionary biology. He also investigated the possible presence ofprehistoric man in the Pampas and made several controversial claims about human origins in South America.Domingo Faustino Sarmiento, president of Argentina 1868–1874, described Ameghino as "a countryman from Mercedes that nobody knows of here, but that is admired by scholars worldwide."
TheAntiquity of Man in the Río de la Plata, later translated into French, was published in 1878.Phylogeny, published in 1884, was a theoretical work on developing an evolutionary concept in theLamarckian vein, and led to the establishment ofzoologicaltaxonomy as a discipline with mathematical foundations. He later directed the Department of Zoology at theNational University of Córdoba, which awarded him with anhonorary doctorate, and was inducted into theNational Academy of Sciences of Argentina.
Ameghino worked withFrancisco P. Moreno, founder and director of theLa Plata Museum, as deputy director, secretary, and director of the Paleontology Department upon its establishment in 1888. Ameghino enriched his department with his own collection, which he sold to the provincial government for the purpose. But it was little time in which these two scientists worked together. A year later his magnum opus appeared in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences,Mammalian Fossils in the Argentine Republic, comprising 1028 pages and an atlas. This latter contribution to the knowledge of the fossil mammals of Argentina won the bronze medal at theExposition Universelle of 1889 inParis.[2]
He later served as director of theBernardino Rivadavia Natural Sciences Museum, in Buenos Aires, and in 1906 publishedSedimentary Formations of the Cretaceous and Tertiary Eras in Patagonia, a work of synthesis is not limited to descriptions, but it raises hypotheses about the evolution of various mammals and analyzes the different layers of the crust and their possible ages. Ameghino returned between 1907 and 1911 to his earlier dedication:anthropology, the descriptions of the first inhabitants, industries and cultures. He theorized about the coexistence between human beings and the extinct megafauna in the Pampas, including the possible origin of humans and subsequent evolution in America. As an autodidact, he studied the lands of the Pampa, collecting numerous fossils, on which he based himself to carry out numerous geology and paleontology investigations. He also investigated Quaternary man at the Chelles archaeological site.
Florentino Ameghino died in La Plata, at the age of 57, on August 6, 1911, after falling ill with diabetes and resisting surgery.[3]
His published works include 24 volumes of between 700 and 800 pages each, containing classifications, studies, comparisons and descriptions of more than 9000 extinct animals, many discovered by him. This was an important contribution to the known catalog of extinct mammals, and would, along with the Ameghino collection, be consulted by scientists from America and Europe in subsequent years. He died from the symptoms ofdiabetes inLa Plata in 1911.
TheAmeghino Crater on theMoon is named in his honor. TheFlorentino Ameghino Partido and its county seat ofAmeghino, situated in the north-west ofBuenos Aires Province, are also named after him, as is thepalaeontologyjournalAmeghiniana.
Several Argentine cities are named Florentino Ameghino as well as various educational institutions across the country, libraries and museums, squares, schools, parks and other locations. Among others, these include:
