Becoming a Vertebrate Palaeontologist

Authors: Turner S*

Volume 4, Issue 1

Abstract

The roads to becoming a palaeontologist or contributing to the discipline are many and varied and for women, often tortuous. Concentrating on early to mid 20th century women in Europe brings to light some of the ways in which women survived in the field of vertebrate palaeontology (VP) studying from the earliest fish to our own human relatives. Only are few are known: e.g., in Britain (Pearson, Steen, Rayner), France (Friant, Dechaseaux), Germany (Edinger, von Huene), Hungary (Mottl), The Netherlands (Schreuder, Sanders,), Romania (von Nopsca), and Sweden (Carlsson, Christie-Lind). It is not always easy to unravel the whys and hows of their scientific contributions or even the basic details of their lives but new historical research has brought to light over 1200 women in VP. Their paths to contributing to VP and the difficulties overcome add to the history of women in science and may inspire others to choose a life in Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM).

Keywords: Vertebrate Palaeontology; Women; Historical Research; STEM; 20th Century; Western Europe

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