Background
Moritz Hörnes was born on the 14th of July in Vienna, Austria.
Moritz Hörnes was born on the 14th of July in Vienna, Austria.
Moritz Hörnes was educated at the University of Vienna and graduated with a Doctor of Philosophy.
Moritz Hörnes became an assistant in the Vienna mineralogical museum. He was distinguished for his research on the Cenozoic Mollusca of the Vienna Basin and of Alpine regions. Most of his memoirs were published in the Jahrbuch der K. K. geological
Reicksanstait.
In 1864 Moritz Hörnes introduced the term Neogene to include Miocene and Pliocene, as these formations are not always to be clearly separated: the fauna of the lower division being subtropical and gradually giving place in the upper division to Mediterranean forms. He died in Vienna on 4 November 1868. In 1860 the mineral hörnesite was named in his honor by Wilhelm Haidinger, with Gustav Adolph Kenngott being its co-describer.
Moritz Hörnes was a member of the Austrian Academy of Sciences.