science · 13 April 1865 · 159 years ago
death
Died 13 Apr 1865 at age 50 (born 17 Jul 1814).
Swiss geologist and paleontologist who was a pioneer, and regarded by some as the founder, of paleogeography. He is known for his work identifying stratigraphic facies (“aspects de terrain”) recognizing lateral regional variations in the character and fossil content of rock strata resulting from the environmental differences at the time of original deposition. This was a notable departure from the conventional geologists' study of vertical differences in strata. He wrote Observations Géologiques sur le Jura Soleurois on his studies of facies (a term he coined) he found in the Jura Mountains. His fossil collection had 25,000 specimens. He was appointed as an assistant to Louis Agassiz at Neuchâtel. The dinosaur Gresslyosaurus (“Gressly's lizard”) was so named in 1857 to honour him. (The name replaced the preoccupied Dinosaurus Ruetimeyer 1856).
OnThisDay.net