Peter Wilhelm Lund
| Peter Wilhelm Lund | |
|---|---|
Peter Wilhelm Lund
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| Born |
14 June 1801 Copenhagen, Denmark |
| Died | 25 May 1880 (aged 78) Lagoa Santa, Brazil |
| Residence | Lagoa Santa, Brazil |
| Citizenship | Danish and Brazilian |
| Nationality | Danish |
| Fields | Paleontology and Archeology |
| Alma mater | University of Copenhagen |
| Known for | Father of Brazilian paleontology Father of Brazilian archeology Father of Brazilian speleology |
| Influences | Georges Cuvier |
Peter Wilhelm Lund (14 June 1801 – 25 May 1880) was a Danish paleontologist, zoologist, archeologist and who spent most of his life working and living in Brazil. He is considered the father of Brazilian paleontology as well as archeology.
He was the first to describe dozens of species of pre-historic megafauna, including the fabled Saber-toothed cat Smilodon populator. He also made the then ground-breaking discovery that humans co-existed with the long-extinct animal species, something which possibly prompted him to terminate his scientific work. His comprehensive collections are today found at the Danish Natural History Museum in Copenhagen.
Peter Wilhelm Lund was born into a wealthy family in Copenhagen. He showed an early interest in the natural science and was working towards a career in medicine but following the death of his father, his passion for natural history prompted him instead to opt for that study at the University of Copenhagen. Already as a student, he wrote two prize-winning dissertations. One of them, published in German, won him international recognition.
Due to a beginning tuberculosis, he traveled to Brazil in 1825 and spent the following three and a half years collecting specimens of plants, birds and insects in the area around Rio de Janeiro, and writing about ants, snails and birds of the region.
Back in Europe in 1829, he achieved a doctoral degree at the University of Kiel, traveled to Italy and later established himself in Paris, where he came under the influence of Georges Cuvier, professor of comparative anatomy at the Muséum National d'Histoire Naturelle and the most influential naturalist and zoologist of the time.
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