Vittorio Simonelli was an Italian geologist and paleontologist.
Education
He studied natural sciences at the University of Pisa as a pupil of Giuseppe Meneghini. From 1883 he taught classes in physical geography at Pisa, later travelling to Munich, where in 1889/90 he studied paleontology with Karl von Zittel and August Rothpletz.
Career
From 1891 to 1895 he was an assistant to the chair of geology at the University of Bologna, then relocated to University of Parma as an instructor of geology and mineralogy. In 1904 Giovanni Capellini appointed Simonelli as curator of the Museo Geologico at the university. During his career, he travelled widely, taking scientific trips throughout Italy, and to Crete, Cephalonia, Podolia, Palestine, Galicia and North Africa.
In 1893 he was the first to identify the remains of prehistoric elephants on Crete, being located in three cave sites near the city of Rethymno.
Also on Crete he discovered the remains of prehistoric deer, which he described as Anoglochis cretensis. The mineral simonellite commemorates his name.