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Constantine Samuel Rafinesque

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Constantine Samuel Rafinesque

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Also known as Rafinesque, Raf., Constantine Samuel Rafinesque-Schmaltz, C. S. Rafinesque

French naturalist (1783-1840)

Person · Open Library

Born
22 October 1783
Died
18 September 1840
Works
111

Top works

  • On two new salamanders of Kentucky
  • Neogenyton
  • Déterminaison de 6 n. esp. de sapins d'Oregon
  • A monograph of the fluviatile bivalve shells of the river Ohio, containing twelve genera & sixty-eight species
  • Continuation of a monograph of the bivalve shells of the river Ohio and other rivers of the western states

via Open Library + Wikidata

Key facts

Born
Constantine Samuel Rafinesque-Schmaltz , ( 1783-10-22 ) 22 October 1783, Galata , Constantinople , Ottoman Empire
Died
18 September 1840 (1840-09-18) (aged 56), Philadelphia , Pennsylvania, U.S.
Fields
Biologist
Author abbrev botany
Raf.

via Wikipedia infobox

~18 min read

Encyclopedic overview

Constantine Samuel Rafinesque-Schmaltz ( French pronunciation: [kɔ̃stɑ̃tin(ə) samɥɛl ʁafinɛsk(ə)ʃmalts]) (October 22, 1783 – September 18, 1840) was a French polymath of the early 19th century. Born near Constantinople in the Ottoman Empire, he was self-educated in France.

As a young man, Rafinesque-Schmaltz traveled to the United States, eventually settling in Ohio in 1815. There, he made significant contributions to botany, zoology, and the study of prehistoric earthworks in North America. Beyond his previous extensive work in Europe, he also contributed to the study of ancient Mesoamerican linguistics. In 1836, Rafinesque was the first person to use the term Taíno as a way of referring to the Indigenous peoples of the Greater Antilles.

Excerpted from Wikipedia’s “Constantine Samuel Rafinesque” article, available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.

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