Gerard Smets

Gerard Smets
Gerard Smets
Born	c.1857
Died	after 1895
Known for	geology; paleontology; science; The misidentification of the plant genus Aachenosaurus

Gerard Smets (c.1857 - after 1895) was a Belgian paleontologist, scientist and abbé known for the misidentification of the plant genus Aachenosaurus, named after the locale of Aachen.

History of the Aachenosaurus

Aachenosaurus was found by Smets in 1887 and was also named by Smets on October 31, 1888, who named the type species Aachenosaurus multidens. Based on these fragments he determined that the specimen was a hadrosaur reaching an estimated 4 to 5 meters in length which might have had dermal spines.[1] He defended this conclusion, citing that the fossils had been examined visually with the naked eye, magnifying lenses and with the microscope. However, his error was soon demonstrated by Louis Dollo. Smets at first tried to defend his original identification but was again proven wrong by a neutral commission and a rumour states that withdrew from science completely from pure embarrassment, but not until he had published a paper on turtles in 1889 (the rumour has been proven false).[2] The last paper he published was in 1895.

References

Smets, G. (1888). "Notices palaeontologiques". Ann. Soc. Science Brussels (Bulletin de la société Belge de Géologie de Paléontologie & D'Hydrologie). 12 (2): 193–214.
John Wright (2014). The Naming of the Shrew: A Curious History of Latin Names. Bloomsbury Publishing. pp. 47–49. ISBN 978-1-4088-2035-3.

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[Smets-1] Smets, G. (1888). "Notices palaeontologiques". Ann. Soc. Science Brussels (Bulletin de la société Belge de Géologie de Paléontologie & D'Hydrologie). 12 (2): 193–214.

[Wright2014-2] John Wright (2014). The Naming of the Shrew: A Curious History of Latin Names. Bloomsbury Publishing. pp. 47–49. ISBN 978-1-4088-2035-3.