Santiago Roth

Santiago Roth (June 14, 1850 – August 4, 1924) was a Swiss Argentine paleontologist.

Kaspar Jakob (Spanish: Santiago) was born and raised in Herisau, Canton Appenzell Ausserrhoden, Switzerland, as the oldest of 12 children. He attended school in the nearby town of St. Gallen, where his teacher Bernhard Wartmann raised his interest in the science of nature. Wartmann was a well known botanist and director of the Museum of History of Nature in St. Gallen.

For economic reasons the Roth family emigrated to Argentina in 1866, where they initially settled in the Colonia Baradero (Buenos Aires Province). There, Roth started a small business with leather goods. In his sparetime he collected plants, butterflies and rocks. He married Elisabeth Schuetz, a teacher educated in Switzerland, who emigrated with her family to Argentina in 1872 as well.

After finding the first fossils he became an ardent explorer and collector of extinct mammals. Already in 1878 he was able to sell a collection of fossils to Dr. Laussen, a Dane, who gave these bones to the Museum of Zoology in Copenhagen. Roth was encouraged to continue finding and collecting rare prehistoric mammals as a profession. He contacted Prof. Carl Vogt at the University of Geneva, who was interested to buy a further collection from Roth. The transport arrived in Geneva heavily damaged. Therefore, Roth traveled to Switzerland in 1880 to repair the skeletons in the laboratories of the university. There, he had the additional benefit of being able to attend lectures on geology, zoology and osteology.

After his return to Argentina, he continued his search in the basin of the Paraná River and in the Entre Ríos Province belonging to the Pampas. He published his findings in his mother tongue, German.

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