1.
Victor de Pol
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Victor de Pol was a sculptor most active in Buenos Aires, Argentina. Born in Venice, de Pol was a student of Giulio Monteverde and he immigrated to Argentina at the age of 22 and participated in the development of La Plata, designing Beaux-Arts-style sculpture for major public buildings. At least judging from his commissions related to President Domingo Faustino Sarmiento, from 1890 through 1895 de Pol returned to Europe. His return to Argentina brought the work of his career. He is buried in La Recoleta Cemetery in the vault of Aristóbulo del Valle
2.
Smilodon
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Smilodon is an extinct genus of machairodont felid. It is perhaps one of the most famous prehistoric mammals, although commonly known as the saber-toothed tiger, it was not closely related to the tiger or other modern cats. Smilodon lived in the Americas during the Pleistocene epoch, the genus was named in 1842, based on fossils from Brazil. Three species are recognized today, S. gracilis, S. fatalis, the two latter species were probably descended from S. gracilis, which itself probably evolved from Megantereon. The largest collection of Smilodon fossils has been obtained from the Rancho La Brea Tar Pits in Los Angeles, overall, Smilodon was more robustly built than any extant cat, with particularly well-developed forelimbs and exceptionally long upper canine teeth. Its jaw had a bigger gape than that of modern cats, S. gracilis was the smallest species at 55 to 100 kg in weight. S. fatalis had a weight of 160 to 280 kg, both of these species are mainly known from North America, but remains from South America have also been attributed to them. S. populator from South America is perhaps the largest known felid at 220 to 400 kg in weight and 120 cm in height, the coat pattern of Smilodon is unknown, but it has been artistically restored with plain or spotted patterns. In North America, Smilodon hunted large herbivores such as bison and camels, Smilodon is thought to have killed its prey by holding it still with its forelimbs and biting it, but it is unclear in what manner the bite itself was delivered. Scientists debate whether Smilodon had a social or a solitary lifestyle, Smilodon probably lived in closed habitats such as forests and bush, which would have provided cover for ambushing prey. Smilodon died out at the time that most North and South American megafauna disappeared. Its reliance on large animals has been proposed as the cause of its extinction, along with change and competition with other species. During the 1830s, Danish naturalist Peter Wilhelm Lund and his assistants collected fossils in the caves near the small town of Lagoa Santa, Minas Gerais. Among the thousands of fossils found, he recognized a few isolated cheek teeth as belonging to a hyena, after more material was found, Lund concluded the fossils instead belonged to a distinct genus of felid, though transitional to the hyenas. He stated it would have matched the largest modern predators in size, Lund originally wanted to name the new genus Hyaenodon, but realizing this had recently become preoccupied by another prehistoric predator, he instead named it Smilodon populator in 1842. He explained the Ancient Greek meaning of Smilodon as σμίλη, a scalpel or two-edged knife and this has also been translated as tooth shaped like double-edged knife. He explained the species name populator as the destroyer, which has also translated as he who brings devastation. By 1846, Lund had acquired nearly every part of the skeleton, fossils of Smilodon were discovered in North America from the second half of the 19th century onwards
3.
Natural history
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Natural history is the research and study of organisms including animals, fungi and plants in their environment, leaning more towards observational than experimental methods of study. It encompasses scientific research but is not limited to it, with articles nowadays more often published in magazines than in academic journals. Grouped among the sciences, natural history is the systematic study of any category of natural objects or organisms. That is a broad designation in a world filled with many narrowly focused disciplines. For example, geobiology has a strong multi-disciplinary nature combining scientists, a person who studies natural history is known as a naturalist or natural historian. The English term natural history is a translation of the Latin historia naturalis and its meaning has narrowed progressively with time, while the meaning of the related term nature has widened. In antiquity, it covered essentially anything connected with nature or which used materials drawn from nature. For example, Pliny the Elders encyclopedia of this title, published circa 77 to 79 AD, covers astronomy, geography, man and his technology, medicine and superstition as well as animals and plants. Medieval European academics considered knowledge to have two divisions, the humanities and divinity, with science studied largely through texts rather than observation or experiment. In modern terms, natural philosophy roughly corresponded to modern physics and chemistry, natural history had been encouraged by practical motives, such as Linnaeus aspiration to improve the economic condition of Sweden. Similarly, the Industrial Revolution prompted the development of geology to help find useful mineral deposits, the astronomer, William Herschel was also a natural historian. Instead of working with plants or minerals he worked with the stars and he spent his time building telescopes to see the stars and the rest of the time watching the stars. In the beginning, he believed there to be a known as a nebulae. Herschel can be considered a natural historian because he observed the natural world, in the process he made charts of all the stars and kept records of all that he saw. S. Wilcove and T. Eisner, The close observation of organisms—their origins, their evolution, their behavior and it encompasses changes in internal states insofar as they pertain to what organisms do. Some definitions go further, focusing on observation of organisms in their environment. Bartholomew, A student of history, or a naturalist, studies the world by observing plants. A common thread in many definitions of natural history is the inclusion of a component, as seen in a recent definition by H. W. Greene
4.
La Plata
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La Plata is the capital city of the Province of Buenos Aires, Argentina, and of the partido La Plata. According to the 2001 census, it has a population of 765,378, La Plata was planned and developed to serve as the provincial capital after the city of Buenos Aires was federalized in 1880. It was officially founded by Governor Dardo Rocha on 19 November 1882 and its construction is fully documented in photographs by Tomás Bradley Sutton. La Plata was renamed Eva Perón City between 1952 and 1955, the city is home to two important first division football teams, Estudiantes de La Plata and Gimnasia y Esgrima La Plata. Rocha decided to erect a new city to host the provincial government institutions, urban planner Pedro Benoit designed a city layout based on a rationalist conception of urban centers. The city has the shape of a square with a central park, in addition, there are numerous other shorter diagonal streets. This design is copied in a manner in small blocks of six by six blocks in length. For every six blocks, there is a park or square. Other than the streets, all streets are on a rectangular grid and are numbered consecutively. Thus, La Plata is nicknamed la ciudad de las diagonales and it is also called la ciudad de los tilos, because of the large number of linden trees lining the many streets and squares. Palms and subtropical evergreen trees thrive, but are comparatively infrequent. The city design and its buildings are noted to possess a strong Freemason symbolism and this is said to be a consequence of both Rocha and Benoit being Freemasons. The designs for the government buildings were chosen in an architectural competition. Thus, the Governor Palace was designed by Italians, the City Hall by Germans, electric street lighting was installed in 1884, and was the first of its kind in Latin America. The neo-Gothic cathedral of La Plata is the largest church in Argentina, the Curutchet House is one of the two buildings by Le Corbusier built in the Americas. The Teatro Argentino de La Plata is one of the most important opera houses in Argentina, the theatre was built on the square block between 9th and 10th Street and 51st and 53rd Avenue. It was opened on November 19,1890 and it was designed by Leopoldo Rochi in Renaissance style. The work was funded by the first inhabitants of La Plata, in the foyer, entering through the majestic doors, there was a beautiful white Carrara marble staircase
5.
Argentina
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Argentina, officially the Argentine Republic, is a federal republic in the southern half of South America. With a mainland area of 2,780,400 km2, Argentina is the eighth-largest country in the world, the second largest in Latin America, and the largest Spanish-speaking one. The country is subdivided into provinces and one autonomous city, Buenos Aires. The provinces and the capital have their own constitutions, but exist under a federal system, Argentina claims sovereignty over part of Antarctica, the Falkland Islands, and South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands. The earliest recorded presence in the area of modern-day Argentina dates back to the Paleolithic period. The country has its roots in Spanish colonization of the region during the 16th century, Argentina rose as the successor state of the Viceroyalty of the Río de la Plata, a Spanish overseas viceroyalty founded in 1776. The country thereafter enjoyed relative peace and stability, with waves of European immigration radically reshaping its cultural. The almost-unparalleled increase in prosperity led to Argentina becoming the seventh wealthiest developed nation in the world by the early 20th century, Argentina retains its historic status as a middle power in international affairs, and is a prominent regional power in the Southern Cone and Latin America. Argentina has the second largest economy in South America, the third-largest in Latin America and is a member of the G-15 and it is the country with the second highest Human Development Index in Latin America with a rating of very high. Because of its stability, market size and growing high-tech sector, the description of the country by the word Argentina has to be found on a Venice map in 1536. In English the name Argentina probably comes from the Spanish language, however the naming itself is not Spanish, Argentina means in Italian of silver, silver coloured, probably borrowed from the Old French adjective argentine of silver > silver coloured already mentioned in the 12th century. The French word argentine is the form of argentin and derives of argent silver with the suffix -in. The Italian naming Argentina for the country implies Argentina Terra land of silver or Argentina costa coast of silver, in Italian, the adjective or the proper noun is often used in an autonomous way as a substantive and replaces it and it is said lArgentina. The name Argentina was probably first given by the Venitian and Genoese navigators, in Spanish and Portuguese, the words for silver are respectively plata and prata and of silver is said plateado and prateado. Argentina was first associated with the silver mountains legend, widespread among the first European explorers of the La Plata Basin. The first written use of the name in Spanish can be traced to La Argentina, a 1602 poem by Martín del Barco Centenera describing the region, the 1826 constitution included the first use of the name Argentine Republic in legal documents. The name Argentine Confederation was also used and was formalized in the Argentine Constitution of 1853. In 1860 a presidential decree settled the name as Argentine Republic
6.
National University of La Plata
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The National University of La Plata is one of the most important Argentine national universities and the biggest one situated in the city of La Plata, capital of Buenos Aires Province. It has over 90,000 regular students,10,000 teaching staff,16 departments and 106 available degrees, the institution began operations on April 18,1897, as the Universidad Provincial de La Plata with Dr. Dardo Rocha as its rector. In 1905, Joaquín V. González, the Minister of Justice and Public Education of the government of Manuel Quintana, González also integrated many municipal scientific institutions into the university, and a year later he became the first President of the National University of La Plata. Today the university one of the most important paleontological and anthropological collections in South America. The university coat of arms was adopted at the first university assembly on 14 February 1897 and it represents the City of La Plata holding up the Light of Science. The constellation of the Southern Cross is also featured, as well as the coat of arms of the Province of Buenos Aires, the university emblem is the oak leaf. Its motto Pro Scientia et Patria is a Latin phrase meaning For Science, the university hymn was composed by Carlos López Buchardo, and its lyrics were written by Arturo Capdevilla. The hymn premiered on 23 October 1927 in the Teatro Argentino of La Plata to commemorate the centenary of the death of Ludwig van Beethoven. It was performed by the orchestra of the Colón Theater of Buenos Aires under the direction of Adolfo Morpurgo, the national capital of Buenos Aires was federalized in 1880. This forced the surrounding Province of Buenos Aires to cede the city, the new provincial capital in La Plata was subsequently founded in 1882 but lacked a center of higher education and investigation. The proposal had immediate repercussions in the city of La Plata, the law was once and for all passed by the provincial Chamber of Deputies on 27 December 1889 and was enacted as Law Number 233 by Governor Máximo Paz on 2 January 1890. The new law established the creation of a university of tertiary studies with four faculties, Law, Medicine, Chemistry and Pharmacy, and Mathematical and Physical Sciences. Due to this delay, a group of citizens presented a request to the Ministry of Government on 5 May 1891 declaring their intentions that their children study law in La Plata. However, the file on that request was closed in 1893, on 28 May 1894, a similar request was presented to the new governor, Guillermo Udaondo, insisting on the full completion of Law 233. Concurrently, Dr. Dardo Rocha, the founder of the city and this was finally sanctioned on 8 February 1897 — seven years after the passing of the law. The first University Assembly came together on 14 February and designated Dardo Rocha himself as the first rector of the university, Studies began on 18 April in the Banco Hipotecario building — the present-day site of the Rectors office — with a class on Law History given by Jacob Larrain. Despite the objectives for which it may have established, the first years of the university were discouraging. In October 1904, González, Governor Marcelino Ugarte and the congressional delegation convened to advance the nationalization project
7.
Amphitheatre
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An amphitheatre or amphitheater /ˈæmfᵻˌθiːətər/ is an open-air venue used for entertainment, performances, and sports. The term derives from the ancient Greek ἀμφιθέατρον, from ἀμφί, ancient Roman amphitheatres were oval or circular in plan, with seating tiers that surrounded the central performance area, like a modern open-air stadium. In contrast both ancient Greek and ancient Roman theatres were built in a semicircle, with tiered seating rising on one side of the performance area. In modern usage, amphitheatre is used to describe theatre-style stages with spectator seating on only one side, theatres in the round. Natural formations of similar shape are known as natural amphitheatres. Ancient Roman amphitheatres were major public venues, circular or oval in plan and they were used for events such as gladiator combats, chariot races, venationes and executions. About 230 Roman amphitheatres have been found across the area of the Roman Empire, the earliest Roman amphitheatres date from the middle of the 1st century BC, but most were built under Imperial rule, from the Augustan period onwards. Imperial amphitheatres were built throughout the Roman empire, the largest could accommodate 40, the most elaborate featured multi-storeyed, arcaded façades and were elaborately decorated with marble, stucco and statuary. After the end of games in the 5th century and of staged animal hunts in the 6th. Their materials were mined or recycled, some were razed, and others were converted into fortifications. A few continued as convenient open meeting places, in some of these, in modern usage, an amphitheatre is a circular, semicircular or curved, acoustically vibrant performance space, particularly one located outdoors. Small-scale amphitheatres can serve to host outdoor local community performances, notable modern amphitheatres include the Shoreline Amphitheatre and the Hollywood Bowl. The term amphitheatre is used for some indoor venues such as the Gibson Amphitheatre. The term amphitheatre can also be used to naturally occurring formations which would be ideal for this purpose. Arena Stadium Thingplatz List of Roman amphitheatres List of contemporary amphitheatres List of indoor arenas List of ancient Greek theatres Roman theatre Bomgardner, the Story of the Roman Amphitheatre
8.
Francisco Moreno
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Francisco Pascasio Moreno was a prominent explorer and academic in Argentina, where he is usually referred to as Perito Moreno. Perito Moreno has been credited as one of the most influential figures in the Argentine incorporation of parts of Patagonia. Moreno was born to Francisco and Juana Thwaites Madero in Buenos Aires, raised in a traditional patrician family, he studied in local parochial schools. He shared his time with his father searching for artifacts and fossils. Following graduation in 1872, he participated in the founding of the Argentine Scientific Society, in January 1876, he reached Lake Nahuel-Huapi in the southern Andes, and on February 15,1877, he discovered and baptized Lake Argentino. He also explored numerous rivers in Patagonia, on March 2, he discovered and named Mount Fitz Roy, after the commander of the expedition of the HMS Beagle in the 1830s. The native people called it Chalten. In 1880, Moreno went to France, where he spoke at a meeting of the Anthropology Society of Paris, discussing two prehistoric skulls he had unearthed in Río Negro territory. He believed one was from the Quaternary period, and the other had ritual deformation in a similar to the skulls of the Aymara people of the Andes. After his return to Argentina, that year he embarked on his major expedition to the territory of Patagonia. He was taken prisoner by a Tehuelche aboriginal tribe and condemned to death and he escaped on March 11, one day before the appointed execution. During this period he met the Tehuelche chief, Inacayal, who was hospitable to him, later Inacayal led a resistance to the government, not surrendering until 1884. In 1882–1883 Moreno explored the Andes from Bolivia southward, and in 1884–1885 he made new explorations of the south of the Río Negro. He was appointed as chief of the Argentine exploring commission of the southern territories, for his contributions to science, Moreno received a doctorate Honoris causa from the National University of Córdoba in 1877. He is also known for his role in defending Argentine interests and he made defining surveys that led to the Boundary treaty of 1881 between Chile and Argentina. These surveys and others yielded Moreno a vast collection of archaeological and anthropological data and artifacts, in 1888, he founded the La Plata Museum of Natural History, the most important of its kind in South America. The scholar Jens Andermann has studied how Morenos collection of artifacts at these two museums helped establish Argentine history, and the claim to its territory. Through these scientific and cultural collections, Moreno contributed to the national mythology and he brought artifacts and materials in from remote regions to be examined, catalogued and studies at the museum in the capital
9.
Anthropology
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Anthropology is the study of various aspects of humans within past and present societies. Social anthropology and cultural anthropology study the norms and values of societies, linguistic anthropology studies how language affects social life. Biological or physical anthropology studies the development of humans. The abstract noun anthropology is first attested in reference to history and its present use first appeared in Renaissance Germany in the works of Magnus Hundt and Otto Casmann. Their New Latin anthropologia derived from the forms of the Greek words ánthrōpos and lógos. It began to be used in English, possibly via French anthropologie, various short-lived organizations of anthropologists had already been formed. The Société Ethnologique de Paris, the first to use Ethnology, was formed in 1839 and its members were primarily anti-slavery activists. When slavery was abolished in France in 1848 the Société was abandoned and these anthropologists of the times were liberal, anti-slavery, and pro-human-rights activists. Anthropology and many other current fields are the results of the comparative methods developed in the earlier 19th century. For them, the publication of Charles Darwins On the Origin of Species was the epiphany of everything they had begun to suspect, Darwin himself arrived at his conclusions through comparison of species he had seen in agronomy and in the wild. Darwin and Wallace unveiled evolution in the late 1850s, there was an immediate rush to bring it into the social sciences. When he read Darwin he became a convert to Transformisme. His definition now became the study of the group, considered as a whole, in its details. Broca, being what today would be called a neurosurgeon, had taken an interest in the pathology of speech and he wanted to localize the difference between man and the other animals, which appeared to reside in speech. He discovered the speech center of the brain, today called Brocas area after him. The title was translated as The Anthropology of Primitive Peoples. The last two volumes were published posthumously, Waitz defined anthropology as the science of the nature of man. By nature he meant matter animated by the Divine breath, i. e. he was an animist and he stresses that the data of comparison must be empirical, gathered by experimentation
10.
Fossil
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Fossils are the preserved remains or traces of animals, plants, and other organisms from the remote past. The totality of fossils, both discovered and undiscovered, and their placement in fossiliferous rock formations and sedimentary layers is known as the fossil record. The study of fossils across geological time, how they were formed, such a preserved specimen is called a fossil if it is older than some minimum age, most often the arbitrary date of 10,000 years. The observation that fossils were associated with certain rock strata led early geologists to recognize a geological timescale in the 19th century. The development of dating techniques in the early 20th century allowed geologists to determine the numerical or absolute age of the various strata. Like extant organisms, fossils vary in size from microscopic, even single bacterial cells one micrometer in diameter, to gigantic, such as dinosaurs, Fossils may also consist of the marks left behind by the organism while it was alive, such as animal tracks or feces. These types of fossil are called trace fossils, as opposed to body fossils, finally, past life leaves some markers that cannot be seen but can be detected in the form of biochemical signals, these are known as chemofossils or biosignatures. The process of fossilization varies according to type and external conditions. Permineralization is a process of fossilization that occurs when an organism is buried, the empty spaces within an organism become filled with mineral-rich groundwater. Minerals precipitate from the groundwater, occupying the empty spaces and this process can occur in very small spaces, such as within the cell wall of a plant cell. Small scale permineralization can produce very detailed fossils, for permineralization to occur, the organism must become covered by sediment soon after death or soon after the initial decay process. The degree to which the remains are decayed when covered determines the later details of the fossil, some fossils consist only of skeletal remains or teeth, other fossils contain traces of skin, feathers or even soft tissues. This is a form of diagenesis, in some cases the original remains of the organism completely dissolve or are otherwise destroyed. The remaining organism-shaped hole in the rock is called an external mold, if this hole is later filled with other minerals, it is a cast. An endocast or internal mold is formed when sediments or minerals fill the cavity of an organism. This is a form of cast and mold formation. If the chemistry is right, the organism can act as a nucleus for the precipitation of minerals such as siderite, if this happens rapidly before significant decay to the organic tissue, very fine three-dimensional morphological detail can be preserved. Nodules from the Carboniferous Mazon Creek fossil beds of Illinois, USA, are among the best documented examples of such mineralization, replacement occurs when the shell, bone or other tissue is replaced with another mineral
Media related to Museo de La Plata collection at Wikimedia Commons