Forgotten women in an extinct saurian (man's) world

Abstract

Despite dinosaurs becoming significant 'icons' in our culture, few women have made major contributions to the study of fossil vertebrates, especially reptilian taxonomy, by specializing in the dinosaurs and related 'saurians'. Most who were involved over the first 150 years were not professional palaeontologists but instead wives, daughters and pure (and usually unpaid) amateurs. Here we salute some 40 of them, showing how some kept alive childhood dreams and others fell into the subject involuntarily. As usual nineteenth-century female practitioners are virtually unknown in this area except for one icon, Dorset girl Mary Anning of Lyme Regis, who significantly contributed to the palaeontology. Only in the early twentieth century did women such as Tilly Edinger conduct research with an evolutionary agenda. Before the modern post-1960s era, beginning with Mignon Talbot, few were scientists or conducting research; others such as Mary Ann Woodhouse, Arabella Buckley, the Woodward sisters, Nelda Wright were artists, photographers and/or writers, scientifically illustrating and/or popularizing dinosaurs. Like many other women, they often battled to get from first base to job, appear fleetingly in the literature then disappear; or exist as anonymous presences behind eminent men. In contrast, the modern era offers better prospects for those wanting to pursue dinosaurs and their relatives, even if it means volunteering for a dino dig, watching a live 'Time team'-type dinosaur dig on TV or entering the Big Virtual Saurian World now on the Internet. This paper considers the problems and highlights the achievements of the oft-forgotten women.Supplementary material: Additional references and list of books and publications by or about deceased women related to 'saurians', including these mentioned in the text, are available at

The first female paleontologist: The life of Mary Anning and her contributions to paleontology

“…Ayrıca Mary aileye destek olmak için evlerde temizlikçi olarak çalışmaya da başlamıştır. Turner ve çalışma arkadaşlarının ifadesine göre muhtemelen bir doktorun evi de Mary'nin zaman zaman gittiği bir evdir, bu evin hanımı Mary'ye bir kitap verir ve bu kitap Mary'nin edindiği ilk jeoloji kitabıdır (Turner, 2010).…”

Répteis que um dia dominaram os mares

“…Os fósseis que serviram de base para a descrição da espécie, e o seu primeiro esqueleto completo alguns anos depois, foram descobertos pela naturalista inglesa Mary Anning na década de 20 dos anos 1800 em rochas do Jurássico Inferior, em Dorset, Inglaterra (Torrens 1995). Ela foi uma pioneira na prospecção dos fósseis que muito ajudaram na consolidação do interesse púbico pela Paleontologia e da teoria da evolução no fim do século XIX e início do XX (Torrens 1995, Turner 2010.…”

The contribution of women to Welsh geological research and education up to 1920

“…The contribution of women to saurian research has been extensively studied by Turner et al (2010). But to date no one has researched and brought together the contribution that women have made to the history, education and development of geology or wider geodiversity in Wales (Creese and Creese, 1994).…”