One of the first scientific descriptions of the mountains was published in 1770-71. Over the next century, the region was studied by scientists from a number of countries, including Russia (geologist Alexander Karpinsky, botanist Porfiry Krylov and zoologist Leonid Sabaneyev), the United Kingdom (geologist Sir Roderick Murchison), France (paleontologist Édouard de Verneuil), and Germany (naturalist Alexander von Humboldt, geologist Alexander Keyserling). In 1845, Murchison, who had according to Encyclopædia Britannica compiled the first geologic map of the Ural in 1841, published The Geology of Russia in Europe and the Ural Mountains with de Verneuil and Keyserling.