The american continent and the deep time:

a perspective of interface between history of science and history environmental

Abstract

The purpose of this article is to analyse the approach of History of Science and Environmental History and the perspective from travels in the late 18th and early 19th centuries, which reveals a possible connection with Deep Time. This study begins with the historiographic discussion about the travels and the analysis of reports produced by Damásio Larrañaga in his journeys. The analysis is related to the discoveries and the studies that occurred in the American continent during that time. The geologic, geographic and paleontologic descriptions play a fundamental role in the perception of the Deep Time concept, as botanical descriptions were used for the mobilization of this concept as well. The fossil discoveries (considered as “signs of time”) as Megatherium, cited in the Tomo I Natural History Diary, also allow a dialogue between the History of Science and Environmental History.