Léon Paul Choffat (14 May 1849 – 6 June 1919) was a Swiss-born geologist, noted as a stratigrapher and paleontologist, who distinguished himself as a study of the pioneer of paleontology of the Jurassic and physical geography of Portugal.
[6] Having completed the course in 1876, the distinctive and brilliant manner in which the course was attended, as evidenced by the high standards of consideration it received from its teachers, led to that honorable appointment that same year as an aggregate professor of Animal Paleontology at the Federal Polytechnic School.
He then began a research course in the field of paleontology, to which he devoted himself full-time, applying the early years of his career to the study of the Jurassic terrain of France and Switzerland, a subject in which he became an expert.
In the memory accompanying the hypsometric chart includes a set of studies on the physical geography of the Portuguese territory, still considered relevant today.
Among the various publications of his own, there are three general studies of great relevance to the knowledge of the geology of Portugal, one on the Jurassic and two on the Cretaceous: In those works established the stratigraphic classification of the Portuguese sedimentary formations, describing the respective faunas, lithological composition and facies.
[10] In the monographs he publishes about the Portuguese sedimentary formations he creates the Lusitanian, describes the Bathonian and Senonian floors and separates the Trias from the Infralias.
He also defined the floor he designated by Belasiano (meanwhile fallen into disuse), represented in the Belas region, outside Lisbon, consisting of marl andlimestones with a silicyblastic series at the base, corresponding to part of the Cenomanian.
Although they were not published, he produced several geological maps in the 1:20 000 scale and when he passed away he was preparing a Description géologique du Portugal, for which he had already collected a lot of data.
Considered to be a “hard-tempered" man "of a physique and temperament (…) audacious in his geological explorations (…) living only for his scientific studies," despite having integrated himself in his homeland of adoption, becoming an individual of prestigious prestige.
Although he worked for 40 years in Portugal, he left no disciples, except the collectors of the Geological Commission and the military engineer and geologist Pereira de Sousa., with whom he later seems to have also become incompatible.
In translation by José Custódio de Morais, the note was republished in the "Memoirs and News" inserted in the Publications series of the Mineralogical and Geological Museum of the University of Coimbra (No.