Abstract
Peter Wilhelm Lund (1801–1880) was a most remarkable nineteenth century Danish naturalist. During 10 years of intense work in the Brazilian limestone caves in the 1830s and 1840s, he generated new explanations for the evolution of the Earth, its fauna and flora, and human beings. His scientific methods were characterized by his unprecedented focus on complete systematic registration. Lund discovered and described an enormous range of extinct animals. He demonstrated that the extinction of prehistoric animals had by no means been complete, that actual animals in fact had lived side by side with animals that are now extinct and even that human beings had been contemporaneous with the extinct megafauna. Lund’s discoveries and analyses contributed toward the lasting and persistent reformulation of the history of the Earth and of humanity that eventually paved the way for a more general acceptance of Darwin’s revolutionary ideas. In fact, he offered to Darwin a long-term view of animal evolution. In addition, Lund performed a pioneering attempt of determining an absolute dating of the contents of a cave. This chapter gives an introductory survey of Lund’s work in the caves of the Lagoa Santa region, as well as a summary of his most important studies on cave fauna.
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- 1.
Johannes Christopher Hagemann Reinhardt (1776–1845), zoologist and Lund’s professor at the University of Copenhagen. Father of Johan Theodor Reinhardt (1816–1882), zoologist and curator of the Lund collection at the Museum of Natural History in Copenhagen.
- 2.
Joakim Frederik Schouw (1789–1852), professor of Botany and an important political figure in Denmark.
- 3.
Small passerine bird inhabiting forests in Brazil, Argentina, and Paraguay (Family: Thraupidae). Lund studied the Euphone genus which today is attributed to the Fringillidae family, subfamily Euphoninae.
- 4.
Georges Cuvier (1769–1832), French zoologist, instrumental in establishing the fields of comparative anatomy and paleontology. Alexander von Humboldt (1769–1859), German geographer, explorer and diplomat, known for his expeditions in Latin America. Henri Milne-Edwards (1800–1885), French zoologist, publisher of Annales des sciences naturelles. Jean Victoire Audouin (1797–1841) French entomologist and ornithologist.
- 5.
Luiz (Ludwig) Riedel (1790–1861), German botanist, became director for the department of botany and the botanical garden of the Natural History Museum of Rio de Janeiro.
- 6.
Peter Claussen (1804–1855), also known as Pedro Claudio Dinamarquez and Chevalier Claussen. Danish natural history collector, business man, and adventurer.
- 7.
Friedrich Sellow (1789–1831), German botanist and naturalist. One of the earliest scientific explorers of Brazil.
- 8.
Peter Andreas Brandt (1792–1862), Norwegian artist and publisher; Lund’s illustrator and assistant.
- 9.
Lund: Travel Diaries (manuscript); Royal Library, Copenhagen, Add. 1128 4°.
- 10.
P.W. Lund to J.Ch. Reinhardt, Letter dated April 26, 1844, Royal Library, Copenhagen, NKS 2838 4°.
- 11.
Charles Lyell (1797–1875), British geologist. His book Principles of Geology proposed the principle of uniformitarianism, that the Earth’s evolution has involved the same processes from its origin until today (Lyell 1830–1833).
- 12.
P.W. Lund a J.C. Reinhardt, Letter dated April 26, 1844, Royal Library, Copenhagen, NKS 2838 4°.
- 13.
Johannes Theodor Reinhardt (1816–1882), Danish zoologist, son of Johannes Christopher Hagemann Reinhardt. Curator of the Lund-collection at the Zoological Museum in Copenhagen, visited Lund several times in Lagoa Santa. His complete record of the fishes of the Rio das Velhas (Lütken 1875) became an important source for the Manuelzão Project initiated in 1997 for revitalizing this river. Eugene Warming (1841–1924), Danish botanist, Lund’s assistant in Lagoa Santa (1861–1863), later director of the Botanical Garden in Copenhagen. His thesis Lagoa Santa, et Bidrag til den biologiske Plantegeografi (Warming 1892) and later works laid the ground for defining the notion of ecology.
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Holten, B., Sterll, M. (2017). Peter Wilhelm Lund: Life and Work. In: Da-Gloria, P., Neves, W., Hubbe, M. (eds) Archaeological and Paleontological Research in Lagoa Santa. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-57466-0_2
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