Was Florentino Ameghino a Fraud or Was He Just a Bad Paleontologist? (Or Neither?)

UngulateNerd92

UngulateNerd92

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Was the legendary Argentinian paleontologist simply a fraudster, or was he a product of his time?

In a dark, dusty corridor in a museum in Buenos Aires, Argentina, a German paleontologist eagerly shuffled through the seemingly endless cabinets filled with fossil curiosities. He had read about the amazing finds of Florentino Ameghino and came to look at the original fossil specimens himself. If Ameghino’s conclusions were correct, the entire paleontological world would be flipped on end.

https://fossilbiasblog.com/2022/01/13/was-florentino-ameghino-a-fraud/amp/
 
I think in all honesty the legacy of Florentino Ameghino reflected a status quo in his time whereby an axis of western science confronted him with his lack of studiuos fieldwork while ignoring their own often not exemplary work and faultlines in doctrine in paleontology at the time.

What his legacy is to me is the rich and unique diversity of mammalian fauna from Miocene and Pliocene in southern South America. The cited Museo de la Plata features nowadays a collection of fossils unheard of from both geologically young and Dinosaur age and remarkably intact at times.

The latter underlines that traditional fossil record hunting grounds may be remarkable and important to understand stratigraphy and richness in fossil record new areas beyond the traditional US Mid West, Dover cliffs and central Europe are just as including Argentina, Tanzania, Chad-Niger, UAE, China and Mongolia and not forgetting Ice Age permafrost Russia and Siberia.
 
Remember also that at the time the discourse and conventional wisdom and validity around claims in human evolution where very much in their infancy and many sections in paleontology and anthropologists were seeking the Holy Grail in human ancestors and hominid fossils to have a name for themselves.

It is rather tragic that Flo. Ameghino was tripped over for his flawed human ancestor story only ex South America versus the thoughtlines at the time on human evolution. And certainly, not fully recognised for the unique mammalian fossil record and collections he founded as a homegrown and proud Argentinian.

BTW: I would like to underline that unique South American is a mighty bit flawed as well as all Argentinians are an amalgamation of local indigenous what is left of it and colonial immigrants from Italy, Spain, Ireland, Wales and what not beyond and like North America have their own black smoldered history in native Indian genocide and active extermination programs in the country in the tradition of how the West was won AKA NAmerica. In this, history seems to repeat itself time and time again where outside claimants force over their control of native lands. This is true of much of Argentine and Chilean territories interior and for Argentina also Vuurland in the South.
 
@Kifaru Bwana I would also agree with your statement that the legacy of Florentino Ameghino would be best understood on the unique regional fossil diversity he found, regardless of his methodology. In some ways, I view the work of the Ameghino brothers as the Argentine equivalents to Edward Drinker Cope and Othneil Charles Marsh's bone wars here in the United States. What do you think of that?
 
Yes, I see what you meant. The 2 budding paleontolgists fought to the bone literally over discover of dinosaurs. An episode was when Joseph Leidy intervened and changed one of Cope's fossil finds of a marine species.
 
Kifaru Bwana said:
Yes, I see what you meant. The 2 budding paleontolgists fought to the bone literally over discover of dinosaurs. An episode was when Joseph Leidy intervened and changed one of Cope's fossil finds of a marine species.
Click to expand...

Pardon my digression, but wow, did Joseph Leidy really have to intervene and correct Cope's work for him? Interesting...
 
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