Lund is today considered the father of  Brazilian paleontology and archaeology.
He was the first to describe dozens of species of pre-historic Pleistocene megafauna, including the fabled Saber-toothed cat Smilodon populator. He also made the then ground-breaking discovery that humans co-existed with the long-extinct animal species, something which possibly prompted him to terminate his scientific work.
His comprehensive collections are today found at the Danish Natural History Museum in Copenhagen.