Cosimo Alessandro Collini
1727 to 1806
Description of the first recorded Pterosaur. Cosimo Collini was born in Florence, Italy on 14 October 1727. Collini described a fossil that Karl Theodor found in a cupboard at the Palace at Manheim in 1757. The fossil was handed over to Collini in 1764. Karl Theodor established the Manheim Natural History Collection and Collini became the first Keeper of this important collection.
Collini, C A. 1784 Sur quelques Zoolithes du Cabinet d’Histoire naturelle de S. A. S. E. Palatine & de Bavière, à Mannheim. Acta Theodoro-Palatinae Mannheim 5 Pars Physica, pp. 58–103 (1 plate).