Johann Leonard Hoffmann (1710-1782) was a Maastricht army surgeon and amateur geologist who collected fossils from the local Mount Saint Peter.
Photos 7
Discovered in the Maastricht caves, the Mosasaurus skull is the first fossil of an extinct reptile identified as such. De Saint-Fond's romantic but inaccurate presentation of the discovery of Mosasaurus showing Hoffmann on the left.
The first skull, found in 1764, purchased in 1784 by Camper's pupil Martin van Marum for the Teylers Museum, where it remains today.
The second skull, M. hoffmannii holotype jaw fragments, known as the "great animal", it was taken as war booty to Paris, where it remains today in the Muséum national d'histoire naturelle
The first skull, engraving from the 1799 book by Barthélemy Faujas de Saint-Fond
The second skull, engraving from the 1799 book by Faujas de Saint-Fond
Doctors born in the 1710s 6
About this person
Johann Leonard Hoffmann (1710-1782) was a Maastricht army surgeon and amateur geologist who collected fossils from the local Mount Saint Peter. He is known for fossils named after him, and was one of the three people contacted on the discovery of the Mosasaurus in 1766, and especially the second one in the 1770s known as "le grand animal", that was later taken to Paris by the French Revolutionary Army in 1794.
Category
Doctors
Type
Doctor
Status
deceased
Dates
Lived 1710 to 1782 · aged 72
Written about in
6 languages
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