Constantine Samuel Rafinesque, Date of Birth, Place of Birth, Date of Death

    

Constantine Samuel Rafinesque

naturalist

Date of Birth: 22-Oct-1783

Place of Birth: Galata, Turkey

Date of Death: 18-Sep-1840

Profession: zoologist, biologist, meteorologist, botanist, mycologist, entomologist, archaeologist, ichthyologist, explorer, malacologist, bryologist, pteridologist, carcinologist

Nationality: United States

Zodiac Sign: Libra


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About Constantine Samuel Rafinesque

  • Constantine Samuel Rafinesque-Schmaltz, as he is known in Europe (22 October 1783 – 18 September 1840), was a 19th-century polymath born near Constantinople in the Ottoman Empire and self-educated in France.
  • He traveled as a young man in the United States, ultimately settling in Ohio in 1815, where he made notable contributions to botany, zoology, and the study of prehistoric earthworks in North America.
  • He also contributed to the study of ancient Mesoamerican linguistics, in addition to work he had already completed in Europe. Rafinesque was eccentric, and is often portrayed as an erratic genius.
  • He was an autodidact, who excelled in various fields of knowledge, as a zoologist, botanist, writer and polyglot.
  • He wrote prolifically on such diverse topics as anthropology, biology, geology, and linguistics, but was honored in none of these fields during his lifetime.
  • Among his theories were that ancestors of Native Americans had migrated by the Bering Sea from Asia to North America, and that the Americas were populated by numerous black indigenous peoples at the time of European contact.

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