 These empirical approaches were also stimulated by the discovery of new continents, which contained plants and animals never known or never described by classical authorities like Aristotle and Pliny. The new knowledge brought by travelers and explorers helped debunk erroneous doctrines advocated by Aristotle, such as the uninhabitability of the torrid zone from Meteorology 362b 6–9: a major exponent of Renaissance Aristotelianism, Pietro Pomponazzi (1462–1525), publicly mocked the Philosopher during his classes when discussing this passage, and supported his position by referring to the direct, recent observations of the navigator Antonio Pigafetta.