Carlo Fornasini

Carlo Fornasini (1854-1931) was an Italian micropaleontologist born in Bologna who specialized in Foraminifera, microscopic marine organisms preserved as fossils, and pioneered biostratigraphy, the technique of sequencing marine sedimentary deposits using fossil forams. He studied under Giovanni Capellini at the University of Bologna, graduating in 1877 with a thesis correctly identifying certain deposits as Pliocene rather than Miocene in age, and between 1883 and 1902 described 78 foraminifer species, remaining the credited taxonomic authority for 77 of them. He published more than 60 scientific papers, served as curator of Bologna's Geological Museum and in leadership roles at the Italian Geological Society, and also served roughly thirty years as mayor of Poggio Renatico.