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Parkinsonia parkinsoni is named in honour of the famous physician Dr. James Parkinson (1755-1824). James Parkinson is most renowned for first describing the medical condition we now know as Parkinson’s disease in his 1817 study ‘An Essay on the Shaking Palsy’.
James Parkinson was not only a pioneer in medicine, he was also a political activist and a palaeontologist. He began to collect and observe fossils in the late 18th century, and gathered his observations in a publication entitled ‘Organic Remains of a Former World’ (1804-1811). He was also one of the founder members of the British Geological Society.