# Fame.am profile — machine-readable export
# Canonical URL: https://fame.am/person/nicolas-steno
# Generated: 2026-08-31T17:35:39.058Z

schema: https://schema.org/Person
url: "https://fame.am/person/nicolas-steno"
name: "Nicolas Steno"
slug: "nicolas-steno"
description: "A Danish anatomist who stopped believing what his textbooks said about tears, then dissected a shark head and realized that \"tongue stones\" were ancient teeth — a crack that split geology open."
tagline: "Pioneer in anatomy and geology, bishop (1638–1686)"
image: "https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Special:FilePath/Niels_stensen.png?width=1200"
gender: "male"
category:
  name: "Religious Figures"
  slug: "religious-figures"
profileType:
  name: "Religious Figure"
  slug: "religious-figure"
birthDate: "1638-01-11"
deathDate: "1686-12-05"
livingStatus: "DECEASED"
scores:
  popularity:           53.78
  momentum:             0
  historical:           23.47607333333334
  currentAttention:     0
  sourceConfidence:     60
  profileCompleteness:  60
  trendDirection:       "STABLE"
ranks:
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  country:  null
  category: null
tags:
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  - name: "Doctor"
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  - name: "Medicine"
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  - name: "Religion"
    slug: "religion"
  - name: "Early Modern Era"
    slug: "early-modern-era"
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    title: "Niels Stensen"
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    title: "Nicolaus Steno"
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    title: "Nicolaus Steno"
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    title: "Նիլս Ստենսեն"
    type:  "WIKIPEDIA"
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    title: "Nicolas Steno"
    type:  "WIKIPEDIA"
  - url: "https://it.wikipedia.org/wiki/Niccol%C3%B2_Stenone"
    title: "Niccolò Stenone"
    type:  "WIKIPEDIA"
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# bio (long form, separated for readability)
bio: |
  Niels Steensen was born in Copenhagen on 1 January 1638 to a Lutheran family and trained in classical science, but by 1659 he'd begun tearing down received wisdom on tear ducts, fossils, and rock layers. His work on fossils and strata made him a founder of modern geology — so much so that a 2009 scholarly volume on the field's revolution devoted half its papers to him alone. In 1667 he converted to Catholicism, and his interest in natural science collapsed almost overnight, overtaken by theology. He was ordained a priest on Easter Sunday 1675, four months after deciding on the priesthood, then appointed Vicar Apostolic of Nordic Missions and Titular Bishop of Titopolis, spending his final years advancing the Counter-Reformation in Northern Germany. He died on 25 November 1686; the Church beatified him in 1988.