Each name in the following list of naturalists is linked to a corresponding capsule “chrono-biographical” sketch of that individual prepared by the authors. Coverage extends from approximately 1950 backward in time as far as the eighteenth century; figures from all over the world are included (though there is admittedly a decided Anglo-American bias).

The target subject here is biogeography, but this being a broad field there are many persons on the list who are better known as climatologists, zoologists, botanists, ecologists, oceanographers, paleontologists, etc.; in other words, who made their main reputations in cognate disciplines.
This service has been set up to support my two “Early Classics in Biogeography, Distribution and Diversity Studies” websites, and because of this no claims are made of having produced a list of all workers relevant to these studies (in fact, the most famous figures, such as Louis Agassiz, Alfred Russel Wallace and Charles Darwin, although listed below, are not covered here inasmuch as satisfactory biographicalinformation on them is easy to find elsewhere on the Web). Note in this context that only those persons who produced works appearing in the “Early Classics…To 1950” list were considered for inclusion below, and therefore that many notable figures whose reputations largely postdate1950 are not treated. This was simply a concession made to the limited time available to do the work.

My thanks to Western Kentucky University for providing funding that significantly contributed to the completion of this service. Also to David Hall, who collected some additional data for me in 2006.
Charles H. Smith

Francesco Santini