Ameghino, Florentino (1854–1911)
Ameghino, Florentino (1854–1911)
Florentino Ameghino (b. 18 September 1854; d. 6 August 1911), Argentine geologist and paleontologist. The son of Italian immigrants, Ameghino was born at Luján in Buenos Aires Province. As a boy he was an avid collector of bones and fossils, and he continued this avocation while working as a schoolteacher and storekeeper. He never received formal scientific training, but his reputation as a man of learning spread, especially after he traveled to Paris in 1878 with part of his collection. He ultimately published almost two hundred articles and monographs, corresponded with foreign specialists, and served as museum director in La Plata and Buenos Aires. Ameghino won greatest notoriety for his hypothesis that humankind originated in and spread from South America. This was not generally accepted, yet he is recognized as a tireless investigator and a pioneer of Argentine science.
See alsoSciencexml .
BIBLIOGRAPHY
José Balbini, Historia de la ciencia argentina (1949), pp. 92-98.
José Gabriel, El loco de los huesos (1940).
Additional Bibliography
D'Auria, Rafael. Ameghino a la luz de la verdad. Córdoba: Biffignandi Ediciones, 1982.
González, Alberto Rex. "Florentino Ameghino: Destino y vocación." Todo Es Historia, 31 (May 1997): 16-18.
Podgorny, Irina. "De la santidad laica del científico Florentino Ameghino y el espectáculo de la ciencia en la Argentina moderna." Entrepasados 6 (1997): 37-61.