Theophrastus (372–287 BC) was a student of Aristotle who eventually succeeded him at the Lyceum. Although Aristotle denounced Plato’s story of Atlantis, Theophrastus wrote of colonies of Atlantis in the ‘sea’.

It is worth noting that Theophrastus is sometimes referred to as the ‘father of botany’ and was one of the earliest writers to note that trees gained an extra outer layer each year. However, it would take over two thousand years before this fact led to the development of today’s invaluable science of dendrochronology.