Charles Brewer-Carías (born 10 September 1938 in
Caracas
Caracas ( , ), officially Santiago de León de Caracas (CCS), is the capital and largest city of Venezuela, and the center of the Metropolitan Region of Caracas (or Greater Caracas). Caracas is located along the Guaire River in the northern p ...
,
Venezuela
Venezuela, officially the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela, is a country on the northern coast of South America, consisting of a continental landmass and many Federal Dependencies of Venezuela, islands and islets in the Caribbean Sea. It com ...
) is a Venezuelan
explorer
Exploration is the process of exploring, an activity which has some Expectation (epistemic), expectation of Discovery (observation), discovery. Organised exploration is largely a human activity, but exploratory activity is common to most organis ...
and
naturalist
Natural history is a domain of inquiry involving organisms, including animals, fungi, and plants, in their natural environment, leaning more towards observational than experimental methods of study. A person who studies natural history is cal ...
. Known as the "
Humboldt of the twentieth century", Brewer-Carías has led more than 200 expeditions to remote parts of the
Venezuelan Guayana, particularly the
tepui
A tepui , or tepuy (), is a member of a family of table-top mountains or mesas found in northern South America, especially in Venezuela, western Guyana, and northern Brazil. The word tepui means "house of the gods" in the native tongue of the ...
s (
table mountains) of the region. His discoveries include the
sink holes of
Cerro Sarisariñama and the world's largest known
quartzite
Quartzite is a hard, non- foliated metamorphic rock that was originally pure quartz sandstone.Essentials of Geology, 3rd Edition, Stephen Marshak, p 182 Sandstone is converted into quartzite through heating and pressure usually related to tecton ...
cave,
Cueva Charles Brewer.
[Brewer Carías, Charles (1938-)]
JSTOR Plant Science.[ University of Plymouth.][Carroll, R. (6 April 2010)]
The British gentleman who became Venezuela's Indiana Jones
''The Guardian''. In 1982, Charles invented a survival knife.
Around 27
[Bromfield, T. (December 2010)]
. ''Geographical Magazine''. species of animals and plants have been named in his honour, including the
bromeliad
The Bromeliaceae (the bromeliads) are a Family (biology), family of monocot flowering plants of about 80 genera and 3700 known species, native mainly to the Tropics, tropical Americas, with several species found in the American subtropics and on ...
genus ''
Brewcaria
''Brewcaria'' is a genus of plants in the family Bromeliaceae. The genus is named for Charles Brewer-Carías, Venezuelan explorer and naturalist. Some authorities treat ''Brewcaria'' as a synonym of '' Navia''. It contains 6 known species, all ...
''.
See also
*
Napoleon Chagnon
*
Jacques Lizot
*
Julian A. Steyermark
*
Otto Huber (ecologist)
References
External links
Official websiteDr Charles Brewer, UBC Venezuela
{{DEFAULTSORT:Brewer-Carias, Charles
1938 births
Living people
Venezuelan explorers
Venezuelan naturalists
Plant collectors
Venezuelan people of British descent
Luis Herrera Campins ministers