Antonio Snider-Pellegrini

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Antonio Snider-Pellegrini (1802–1885) was a French geographer and geologist who proposed ideas about continental drift long before they became widely accepted. In 1858 he published La Création et ses mystères dévoilés (The Creation and its Mysteries Unveiled), arguing that the world’s continents were once connected during the Pennsylvanian Period. He based this on fossils of plants found in both Europe and North America, with matching fossils on other continents as well. He also suggested a dramatic change in Earth's size during biblical times. A follower of Charles Fourier, he even tried to establish a Phalanstère near Matagorda, Texas. Snider-Pellegrini is remembered as an early advocate of continental drift, predating Alfred Wegener and influencing later scientists such as Eduard Suess, Roberto Mantovani, and Frank Bursley Taylor.