ANCONA, CESARE D'

ANCONA, CESARE D' (1832–1901), Italian geologist. D'Ancona was born in Pisa and studied geology under Meneghini. He was appointed professor of paleontology at the University of Florence in 1874. D'Ancona reorganized the section of tertiary malacology of the Central Italian Collection of Paleontology over a period of several years, and as a result, the Italian Geological Committee asked him to prepare a comprehensive, systematic survey of the malacology of the Italian pliocene and early quaternary. This survey, the first since the early study of G.B. Brocchi in 1808, was published in 1871–73 and became the standard work on the subject. In 1894 d'Ancona published a paper on the evolution of the horse, which earned him election to the Italian Royal Geological Association. He was cofounder and secretary of the Italian Botanical Society. His major publications are: Sulle Neritine fossile dei terreni terziari superiori dell' Italia centrale (1889); Malacologia pliocenica italiana (in Memorie per servire all descrizione della carta geologica d'Italia, 1 (1871), 305–63; 2 (1873), pt. 1, 171–264); Gli antenati della vigna vinifera (in Attidella Accademia dei Georgofili di Firenze, 13, 1890); Storia genealogica del cavallo (ibid., 17, 1894). (Yakov K. Bentor)