The French Botanist Aimé Bonpland and Paleontology at Cuenca Del Plata
Mainly recognized in his role of naturalist-explorer by his travels with Alexander von Humboldt (1769-1859), and so by his studies on tropical plants from Central and South America, the French botanist Aimé Bonpland (1773-1858) pursued important paleontological investigations in Argentina, Uruguay, and southern Brazil. In the early nineteenth century, when the earth sciences were just developing at Cuenca del Plata, Bonpland collected invertebrates, mammal bones, and petrified wood. Most of his findings have never been published. A part of his collections has been held at the Muséum National d'Histoire Naturelle of Paris since 1837. Alcide d'Orbigny (1802-1857) studied the pelecypods collected by Bonpland in Entre Ríos province, Argentina, and named a species in his honor: Arca bonplandiana d'Orbigny.