Paleontology (1800+)

Specific local circumstances often have a decisive role in shaping a nation's scientific specializations. To list just a few examples: Brazilian public health officials in the early twentieth century were expert in fighting tropical diseases, sixteenth century Mexicans were at the forefront of new mining techniques, twentieth century Peruvian physicians studied the effects of high altitude on human health, and Caribbean agriculturalists perfected how sugar was grown and refined. All of these reflect the Latin American preference for the useful arts, applied sciences (medicine, agriculture, mineralogy, etc.) that are developed locally for local benefit.

Latin American paleontology, especially that of Argentina, also grew out of local conditions: the area has some of the richest and most unique fossil deposits found anywhere in the world. The fossilized bones, eggs, teeth, and footprints of dinosaurs and bizarre mammals that lived tens of millions of years ago have piqued the interest of Argentine natural historians since the mid nineteenth century. Yet it is difficult to make the case that paleontology is a useful art--exhuming long-extinct species really does nothing to improve life in one's country. It can, however, foster a sense of pride in a national past, one that goes well beyond recorded history to the very foundations of animal and human life.

Interest in Latin American fossils can be traced back to the sixteenth century, but it reached its first mature phase in the nineteenth century when Charles Darwin collected and studied Argentine fossils during the voyage of the Beagle. According to historian of science Sandra Herbert, the ancient remains of giant sloths, toed horses, and marine life (found in the Andes) made him ponder both the geological history of the earth and the reasons why these and other fauna went extinct and others took their place. The fossils of South America played an important part in the eventual formulation of his theory of natural selection (Herbert 2005). Evolutionism would then make its way back to Latin America in the late nineteenth century, where it helped promulgate many scientific (and pseudo-scientific) notions about the nature of its people, society, and destined greatness.

In late nineteenth century Argentina, both the fossils themselves and the science of interpreting and displaying them became caught up in the scientific nationalism so prevalent in that era. Paleontologists like Florentino Ameghino (seen in the sources) used the fossil record to bolster the primacy of Argentina in the biological history of humankind. His patriotic and (we now know) scientifically untrue theory that the ancestors of homo sapiens lived in Argentina is the most extraordinary example of this paleontological nationalism (Ameghino 1906).

Since the 1880s, both Latin American and foreign paleontologists have devoted many efforts to the discovery, extraction, presentation, and study of South American fossils. Indeed, the extraordinary nature of the fossils themselves is responsible for this. The fauna of Latin America were (and are) different from that of the rest of the world, and have long posed difficult questions about that region's place in the overall evolution of life, especially that of vertebrate mammals. The stratified sedimentary beds of Patagonia (seen in the source "Dinosaur Eggs in Patagonia") help paleontologists coordinate the lifespans of various taxa with corresponding geological eras while fossils in Central America provide key insights as to how and when the Great American Faunal Interchange merged the life forms of North and South America (see the source on paleontology in El Salvador) (Cisneros 2005).

Although these extinct species would not have known or cared that their bones would become the subject of intellectual disputes, the idea of who owned these fossils, in which institutions (and in which manner) they should be displayed, and who was most qualified to posit scientific "facts" based on their (often very scanty) evidence would become important issues by 1900. Historian Irina Podgorny notes how, circa 1900, many U.S. and European experts considered Argentinean paleontologists little more than field workers fit to collect and store fossils that were best interpreted by foreigners. Foreign expeditions came to dominate Latin American paleontology by the mid twentieth century, and many of the best specimens ended up in U.S. museums and discussed in U.S. journals (as in the source Astrapotherium magnum). There was even conflict within Argentina, where the bickering between individuals and institutions (especially the Museo de La Plata and the Museo Nacional de Buenos Aires) actually led paleontologists to keep many of their findings secret so as to prevent others from harvesting their fossil beds or disputing their assertions (Podgorny 2005). Like Latin America's many mineral, ethnological, and botanical treasures, its fossils have been coveted by many distinct groups, and the realities of social and political power are never far from their contests.

Latin America continues to yield fantastic paleontological finds; dozens of new species (and even several new genuses and families) of vertebrate mammals and dinosaurs have been discovered in the last twenty years. Due to ongoing political strife, the lack of local scientific infrastructures, and fact that much of Latin America remains only minimally known, the region promises to hold many more secrets as well. Just as the mysteries of fossils inspired scientists like Charles Darwin, their enigmatic clues will continue to spark interest among scientists and laypeople about the very history of the earth and life itself. Indeed, when compared to the antique majesty of a 90 million year old dinosaur skeleton, the history of human beings, much less their scientific pursuits in Latin America, begins to seem of little moment.

Questions for Further Exploration:

1. Compare Argentine paleontology in the age of positivism (c. 1880-1915) with another contemporary Argentine science (criminology, medicine, anthropology, etc.). Consider such things as their social impact, nationalism, the idea of progress, positivism, institutions, international recognition, race, and gender.

2. For those who can read Spanish: Read the source Una Carta de Darwin. What can a historian take from this source that would be useful to understanding paleontology, international scientific relations, European attitudes about Latin America, or Argentine science in the mid nineteenth century? Is this a "good" historical source? Why or why not?

3. Examine Charles Darwin's and Florentino Ameghino's understandings of paleontology. Use the sources in this topic as well as primary source writings by them both (each have published works available at the Biodiversity Heritage Library, http://www.biodiversitylibrary.org.

4. U.S. paleontological expeditions to Latin America have done much to further the science on the whole, but it has also promulgated issues of neo-colonialism and who has the right to use Latin America as a "field" of research. How do expeditions by paleontologists compare with other scientific expeditions, like those of Darwin, Humboldt, and others (see the Scientific Expeditions topic)? Make an argument in your response.

5. Argentina is the Latin American country most well known for paleontology, but it is certainly not the only one. The sources have some information on El Salvador, but Brazil, Chile, Peru, Bolivia, and many other countries have made interesting contributions to the field. Research the history of paleontology in one of these countries. Consider both scientific aspects (like how a discovery changed the understanding of a genus' evolution) and social aspects (like national pride, neocolonialism, international exchange of science).

Argentina, Cradle of Mankind

Date: 1900
Owner: Taller de Impresiones Oficiales, La Plata, Argentina
Source Type: Images

Florentino Ameghino made this chart to help prove his fossil-based theory that all apes and people descended from a Patagonian primate that lived during the Cretaceous period. While today there is consensus among modern scientists that humans evolved in Africa, Ameghino postulated that Homo sapiens' ancestors crossed from South America to Africa when those continents were connected and evolved into the various types of Old World protohumans. South America did not contain anthropomorpha like Homo erectus because such species were actually evolved from homo sapiens. Ameghino thus turned Darwinian evolution on its head: humans were not an improved kind of ape, but apes were a beastly evolutionary offshoot of us. As he wrote in his article "Les Formations Sedimentaires," "C'est ne pas l'Homme qui apparait comme un Singe perfectionne, sinon au contraire les Singes qui appraissent comme des homes bestializes" (loosely translated as "men are not improved apes, apes are men turned into beasts") (Ameghino 1906, 558).

Ameghino's nationalistic brand of paleontology--especially his ideas about the descent of humans--was very popular both in South America and southern Europe, regions that had long been relegated to a secondary role in the overall process of evolution and thus took a kind of pan-Latin pride in Ameghino's science. Argentine schoolbooks even published a version of Ameghino's evolution of man, a process that began with primitive primates in Patagonia and ended with modern citizens living in urban centers.

These neat charts and theories, however, were based on real fieldwork, expeditions in which Florentino himself took almost no part (he visited Patagonia for the first time in 1903). His brother Carlos took the lead in this crucial aspect of the family business by wandering around Patagonia, excavating fossils, and recording their strata. Florentino (who was given name recognition for these collaborative works) interpreted Carlos' evidence from the comfort of his position as director of the Museo Nacional de Buenos Aires, where he was free to make the collected bones fit into his ideas about the primacy of Argentina in vertebrate mammal paleontology. The work of the Ameghinos is an important reminder that even empirical science is a complicated process; many distinct steps go into something like interpreting a fossilized tooth, all of which are vulnerable to subjective interpretation.

Reference: Podgorny, Irina. "Bones and Devices in the Constitution of Paleontology in Argentina at the End of the Nineteenth Century." In Science in Context, vol. 18, no. 2 (2005), pp. 249-283.

CITATION: From Obras Completas y Correspondencia Cientifica de Florentino Ameghino, volumen IV, Vida y obras del sabio. Dirigida por Alfredo J. Torcelli. La Plata: Taller de impresiones oficiales, 1915.

DIGITAL ID: 13099

Astrapotherium Magnum

Date: 1935
Owner: Biodiversity Heritage Library
Source Type: Images

This Astrapotherium magnum, a bison-sized mammal with huge mandibles from the middle Pleistocene, was discovered in 1923 by U.S. paleontologist Elmer Samuel Riggs (1869-1963) as part of a scientific expedition to Patagonia. This was the most complete skeleton yet found from the order Astrapotheria and the team shipped their prize back to their sponsor, the Field Museum in Chicago (where the bones arranged here were displayed). In the words of Riggs, this was done "in accordance with a plan for placing...collections of South American fossil vertebrates in the hands of specialists best qualified to study them" (Riggs 1935). It apparently went without saying that these experts were in the United States.

Following the death of Florentino Ameghino, who did much to make the fossil wealth of Patagonia known to the world, there was a long period in which scientific expeditions from the United States dominated South American paleontology. As in other areas of natural science (and even anthropology and ethnology), U.S scientists used the south as a field in which to do science while giving little or nothing back to the local scientific community. To be sure, institutions such as the Museo de La Plata continued to contribute to the field, but the superior resources and funding of U.S. expeditions quickly reduced the international importance of Argentine paleontologists. Furthermore, many of the most exciting new finds, such as this skeleton, ended up in American museums.

As early as the 1890s, scientific expeditions to Patagonia were (surprisingly) more convenient for U.S. paleontologists than those from Argentina. According to historian Irina Podgorny, the many English, Scottish, and Irish ranchers who lived in Patagonia to profit from the wool trade with Great Britain provided U.S. teams with a network of well connected Anglophones who had direct access to local officials and ships leaving the area's few ports. Furthermore, U.S. paleontologists may have felt more at home in Patagonia than their Argentine counterparts; the harsh conditions resembled those of Wyoming and Montana (where many U.S. paleontologists had proven themselves) and the local population were often less hostile to foreigners than porteno Argentines, who they had good cause to resent during the late nineteenth century.

References: Podgorny, Irina. "Bones and Devices in the Constitution of Paleontology in Argentina at the End of the Nineteenth Century." In Science in Context, vol. 18, no. 2 (2005), pp. 249-283.

Riggs, Elmer S. "A Skeleton of Astrapotherium." In Fieldiana, Geology, vol. 6, no. 13. Chicago: Field Museum of Natural History, 1935.

CITATION: Skeleton of Astrapotherium magnum, No. P14251, as mounted in Field Museum. From: Riggs, Elmer S. "A Skeleton of Astrapotherium." In Fieldiana, Geology, vol. 6, no. 13. Chicago: Field Museum of Natural History, 1935. Image courtesy Biodiversity Heritage Library. http://www.biodiversitylibrary.org.

DIGITAL ID: 13100

Darwin and Paleontology

Date: 1831
Owner: Wellcome Library, London
Source Type: Images

Many consider Charles Darwin's theory of evolution to stem from revelations following his visit to the Galapagos Islands, yet he explored the Galapagos after nearly four years of observing other South American species, both living and extinct. The remains of long-dead fauna found in odd places, like these ancient conchs from the Andes, raised difficult questions about how these species had ceased to exist and what, if any, connection they might have to present-day species. It was this question, which Darwin first encountered in the Southern Cone, that may have sparked his early notions of successive evolution and natural selection.

While he traveled with the Beagle during this early stage of his career, Darwin was primarily a geologist; international travel, like the Beagle's voyage around the world, was considered integral in the 19th century to developing a larger (extra-European) picture of the earth's history. Darwin hoped that his observations and collections in South America could help to elaborate the bourgeoning theory of geographic strata, determining the relative age of the different eras by examining both rocks and the various fossils contained therein.

His greatest discovery, however, did not prove much about stratigraphy. He realized that creatures like the glyptodont (an extinct huge mammal with a hard shell) were not direct ancestors of modern fauna like armadillos, a tenet of some pre-Darwinian evolutionary theories. Furthermore, all similar species in the Americas that were found in the fossil record and among modern creatures were native only to the Americas. As he eventually articulated in The Origin of Species, what occurred was a succession of types, each more fit to thrive during (drastically changing) contemporary circumstances. The fact that 2 of the 10 chapters in the original edition of the Origin dealt with fossils reflects how important his paleontological discoveries were to his mature theory.

As in other scientific expeditions of the nineteenth century (and beyond), Darwin simply took what he found and sent it to Europe. There were no laws governing the "theft" of natural history specimens, and Darwin's use of South America as a "field" for doing science contributed little to South America at the time. In the late nineteenth century, however, the seminal theory that literaly had its roots in South American soil would have a massive impact on many aspects of Latin American science and society: evolutionism shaped how positivists understood biology, criminology, racial sciences (and eugenics), tropical diseases, and, of course, paleontology. The scientific rhetoric of Darwinian evolution was even used to evince the development of "backwards" Latin American nations into modern, Western-style states.

References: Herbert, Sandra. Charles Darwin, Geologist. Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 2005.

CITATION: Conchology: shells. Engraving. From: Darwin, Charles. Geological Observations on South America. London: Smith and Elder, 1846. Credit: Wellcome Library, London. L0003828.

DIGITAL ID: 13096

El Salvadoran Paleontology

Date: 2001
Owner: Wikimedia
Source Type: Images

In 2000, an El Salvadoran handyman stumbled upon some large teeth embedded in the compacted clay near the Rio Tomayate and, realizing these were not everyday molars, sent them to the Museo de Historia Natural de El Salvador. By 2001, the museum had begun excavating the site and was amazed to discover the largest deposit of early-middle Pleistocene vertebrate fossils ever found in Central America. The site, which became a national monument in 2002, has yielded at least seventeen different taxa of vertebrates, including ancient turtles, horses, llamas, glyptodonts, and the world's only fossil record of the species Crocodylus Acutus. Laser-Argon tests suggest that the bones are at least 8 million years old, a significant discovery because, prior to this find, paleontologists had considered the Central American land bridge to be almost 6 million years younger.

Central America is a bottleneck between North and South America in which the fauna of each have long collided. Paleontologist Juan Carlos Cisneros noted that Central America was critical to the Great American Faunal Interchange, the movement of animals from south to north and vice versa that produced novel environmental conditions that often favored novel genetic adaptations, the key to Darwinian evolution.

Despite the long-known promise of Central American paleontology, little work was done in this area prior to the Rio Tomayate discovery. This is due in large part to the ongoing civil wars and instability of this region, as well as the lush vegetation that makes discoveries difficult. Yet it also reflects the lack of scientific institutions and infrastructure that have long plagued countries on the peripheries of science like El Salvador. Poor states with economies based on mono-crop agriculture have struggled to develop the applied sciences (like engineering) while the less useful sciences, like paleontology, have had almost no support. Nevertheless, important discoveries like the vertebrate fossils at Tomayate can directly stimulate massive scientific and national interest, much like the nineteenth century discoveries of fossils in Argentina did for paleontology and natural history museums in that country.

Reference: Cisneros, Juan Carlos. "New Pleistocene Vertebrate Fauna from El Salvador." In Revista Brasiliera de Paleontologia, vol. 8, no. 3 (2005), 239-255.

DIGITAL ID: 13097

Florentino Ameghino

Date: 1900
Owner: Taller de Impresiones Oficiales, La Plata, Argentina
Source Type: Images

From the late eighteenth to early nineteenth centuries, the name of Florentino Ameghino (1854-1911) was synonymous with Argentine paleontology. Although he was certainly not the only Argentine of his day to study fossils, he was well known throughout the international scientific community for his remarkable work on Patagonian vertebrates and his polemical and highly nationalistic brand of science. Most of his field work was entrusted to his brother Carlos while Florentino, from his position as director of the Museo Nacional de Buenos Aires, published almost twenty volumes on vertebrate paleontology, including the famous, controversial, and decidedly incorrect article "Les Formations Sedimentaires..." (1906).

Whereas many of his positivist contemporaries in Argentina used modern theories like Darwinism to bolster their country's present and future glory, Ameghino combined evolutionary theory and the Patagonian fossil record to laud Argentina's place in mankind's and the world's past. According to Ameghino, Patagonian marsupials were the evolutionary ancestor of every mammal on earth, including the genus homo. Thus such widely dispersed animals as Eurasian horses, African rhinoceroses, and Asian elephants all descended from distinct Patagonian species. The earliest humans, according to Ameghino, also arose in Argentina.

Ameghino arrived at these thoroughly wrong conclusions by selectively miscalculating the ages of various geologic strata. By dating the Late Cretaceous era (the last age of dinosaurs that ended about 65 million years ago by modern estimates) around 30 million years ago, he was able to claim that Argentine mammals existed contemporaneously with dinosaurs before spreading to the rest of the world. His hypotheses were incredibly popular among contemporary Argentine scientists who saw his work as proof of the primacy of Argentina in human history. Ameghino exemplified how scientific work, even on such remote topics as the bones of extinct species, was closely tied with Argentina's emerging national science.

References: Ameghino, Florentino. "Les Formations Sedimentaires du Cretace Superieur et du Tertiare de Patagonie avec un Parallele entre leurs Fraunes Mammalogiques et celles de l'Ancien Continent." In Anales del Museo Nacional de Buenos Aires, (3) 8: pp. 1-568.

Rodriguez, Julia. Civilizing Argentina: Science, Medicine, and the Modern State. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2006.

---. "Early Mammals in South America: Fact, Controversy, and Mystery." In: Proceedings of the American Philosophical Society, Vol. 122, no. 5 (Oct. 19, 1978), pp. 318-328.

CITATION: Florentino Ameghino, 1854-1911. From Obras Completas y Correspondencia Cientifica de Florentino Ameghino, volumen I, Vida y obras del sabio. Dirigida por Alfredo J. Torcelli. La Plata: Taller de impresiones oficiales, 1913.

DIGITAL ID: 13094

Patagonian Dinosaur Fossils

Date: 2011
Owner: SRAPix
Source Type: Images

Patagonia's wealth of fossils continues to unveil new secrets about the ancient earth, yet it also helps to promulgate a corps of specialists that have put Argentine paleontology back on the world stage. Dr. Bonaparte, who recently served as director of the Museo Nacionale de Ciencias Naturales, is an international leader in both mammal and dinosaur paleontology and has discovered well over a dozen new species during his many years in the field. Other major research institutions such as the Museo de La Plata and the smaller Museo Municipal de Ciencias Naturales Lorenzo Scaglia continue to amass collections and publish scholarly journals.

Many of the excavations in Patagonia and elsewhere in Argentina are still done by foreign expeditions, mostly from the U.S., but there has been a consistent increase in both scholarly dialogue and onsite interaction between native and international scientists. The result has been a plethora of new discoveries that continue to illuminate our understanding of this most ancient Latin American history.

CITATION: SRAPix. "A Gleam in his Daddy's Eye", display of dinosaur bones and eggs in the Museo Paleontologico Edigio Feruglio, in Patagonia, 2011.

DIGITAL ID: 12771

Source References

Web Sites

Paleontology in Argentina (Welcome Argentina)

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Museo Argentino de Ciencias Naturales (Museo Argentino de Ciencias Naturales)

Inter Patagonia, Paleontology (Inter Patagonia)

Museo Argentino de Ciencias Naturales (undefined)

Museo de La Plata (undefined)

Relics and Selves: The Museo Nacional de Ciencias Naturales, Buenos Aires (BBC)

Publications

Cisneros, Juan Carlos. "New Pleistocene Vertebrate Fauna from El Salvador." Revista Brasiliera de Paleontologia. 8: 3 (2005): 239-255.

Coates, Anthony G. Central America: A Natural and Cultural History. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1998.

Cooper, G. Arthur. Cambrian Stratigraphy and Paleontology Near Caborca, Northwestern Sonora, Mexico. Washington DC: Smithsonian Institution Press, 1952.

Hatcher, John Bell. Bone Hunters in Patagonia: Narrative of the Expedition. Woodbridge, CT: Ox Bow Press, 1985.

Herbert, Sandra. Charles Darwin, Geologist. Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 2005.

Lopes, Maria Margaret and Irina Podgorny. "The Shaping of Latin American Museums of Natural History, 1850-1990." Osiris, 2nd Series, 15, Nature and Empire: Science and the Colonial Enterprise (2000): 108-118.

Muniz, Francisco Javier. Escritos Cientificos. Grandes Escritores Argentinos, Director: Alberto Palcos, XIII. Buenos Aires and New York: W.M. Jackson, inc., 1916.

Podgorny, Irina. "Bones and Devices in the Constitution of Paleontology in Argentina at the End of the Nineteenth Century." Science in Context. 18: 2 (2005): 249-283.

Podgorny, Irina. "De la santidad laica del cientifico: Florentino Ameghino y el espectaculo de la ciencia en la Argentina moderna." Entrepasados, 13 (1997): 37-61.

Podgorny, Irina. "Ser todo y no ser nada. El trabajo de campo entre los naturalistas argentinos a fines del Siglo XIX." Historias y estilos del trabajo de campo en Argentina, edited by R. Guber and S. Visakovshky. Buenos Aires (2002): pp. 31-77.

Riggs, Elmer S. "A Skeleton of Astrapotherium." Fieldiana, Geology. 6: 13. Chicago: Field Museum of Natural History, 1935.

Simpson, George Gaylord. "Early Mammals in South America: Fact, Controversy, and Mystery." Proceedings of the American Philosophical Society. 122: 5 (October 1978): 318-328.

Simpson, George Gaylord. Splendid Isolation: The Curious History of South American Mammals. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1980.

Vega, Francisco J., Torrey G. Nyborg, Maria del Carmen Perrilliat, Marisol Montellano-Ballesteros, Sergio R.S. Ceballos-Ferriz, and Sara A. Quiroz-Barroso. Studies on Mexican Paleontology. New York: Springer, 2006.

Films and Videos

Em Busca dos Dinossauros (Urca Filmes, 2002)

Una Carta de Darwin

Date: 1847
Owner: W.M. Jackson, Inc.
Source Type: Private Papers

Francisco Javier Muniz (1795-1871) was the first native-born Argentine to explore his country's rich deposits of fossils in the systematic method advocated by Georges Cuvier, the French father of vertebrate paleontology. He was a lifelong member of Argentina's army, first as a soldier (he was wounded defending Buenos Aires against the British invasion of 1807) and later as a physician. His first foray into paleontology occurred largely by accident in 1825, when he stumbled upon the bones of an ancient armadillo-like creature (perhaps a glyptodont) and decided to dig them up.

Over fifteen years later, Muniz decided to devote himself to paleontology in earnest, largely because of the influence of Charles Darwin. Although On the Origin of Species was not yet published, Darwin had already been recognized for the work he did in South America and it was Darwin's fossil discoveries that piqued Muniz's interest. In 1842, Muniz excavated megatheres, a primitive horse, and a kind of saber-toothed cat. He donated his new collection to the government of General Rosas, who promptly sold them to various European collectors. Although Muniz himself sent many specimens overseas, he also presented some of his finds to the Museo Publico de Buenos Aires.

In this 1847 letter (probably originally written in English), Darwin expresses his admiration for the Argentine's "zeal" for natural history and thanks Muniz for sending him "very curious" and "very valuable" information on a kind of extinct mammal (the Niata cow). Although their correspondence was limited, the fact that an Argentine naturalist was in contact with European experts evinces that South American science had begun to be reborn following the wars of independence.

Muniz became an important figure for natural scientists of the Generation of 1880, who considered him a paragon of nationalism and progress. In fact, the prologues to his Escritos Cientificos were by Florentino Ameghino and President Domingo Faustino Sarmiento. Ameghino wrote that Muniz "rivaled Darwin, and like all great men of science his knowledge was acquired in his own country." Such rhetoric connected the study of ancient fossils with modern science that was done within and for a modern state.

References: Ameghino, Florentino. "Prologo." In: Muniz, Francisco Javier. Escritos Cientificos. Grandes Escritores Argentinos, Director: Alberto Palcos, XIII. Buenos Aires and New York: W.M. Jackson, inc., 1916.

CITATION: "Una Carta de Darwin," February 26, 1847. In: Muniz, Francisco Javier. Escritos Cientificos. Grandes Escritores Argentinos, Director: Alberto Palcos, XIII. Buenos Aires and New York: W.M. Jackson, inc., 1916.

DIGITAL ID: 13098