Domingos Soares Ferreira Penna

Domingos Soares Ferreira Penna was a Brazilian naturalist and archaeologist who was born in Mariana, Minas Gerais, in 1818. He studied medicine in Rio de Janeiro and graduated in 1842. He then traveled to Europe and learned about natural history and geology. He returned to Brazil and worked as a physician and professor in various cities. He also devoted himself to scientific exploration, especially in the Amazon region. He founded the Museu Paraense (later renamed Museu Paraense Emílio Goeldi) in Belém, where he collected and studied specimens of fauna, flora, and minerals. He also conducted archaeological investigations in the coastal and riverine areas of Pará, where he discovered and excavated several shell mounds, or sambaquis, that contained human and animal bones, pottery, and stone tools. He was the first to recognize that these sites were ancient settlements of fishing people, dating back to the early Holocene. He also discovered the Formação Pirabas, a fossiliferous unit of the Tertiary period, where he found remains of marine and terrestrial animals, such as sharks, whales, crocodiles, turtles, and sloths. He published many scientific papers and reports on his findings, and shared his knowledge with other scholars, such as Charles Hartt, Ladislau Netto, and Louis Agassiz. He died in Belém, Pará, in 1888, at the age of 69. He is considered one of the pioneers of natural and archaeological research in Brazil, and has received many honors and tributes for his contributions. ¹