Women in Paleontology

the day of this video's upload February 11th is officially the International Day of women and girls and science and so I thought I would take this opportunity to talk about women in paleontology there have been a great many female paleontologists who have made immense contributions to this science and in this video we'll be looking at three people who have each made unique discoveries that advanced our knowledge of the past the people featured in this video have also not necessarily become involved with paleontology in the conventional sense as you'll see and I'd like this video to also show you how there is not just one route to becoming a paleontologist as these people illustrate as long as you have a passion for the subject you can develop it into a career sue Hendrickson became very well-known in the early 90s for her extraordinary discovery of the world's most complete Tyrannosaurus Rex specimen this specimen which was named sue after his Discoverer had a lot of controversy surrounding it when it was first found however the importance of the skeleton is immense and the woman who discovered her although not a conventional scientist is a skilled fossil hunter field paleontologist and Explorer Hendrickson was born in Chicago in 1949 where she went to school until her last year which she spent at a school in Florida however she soon left and headed to California where she lived on a sailboat for a couple of years she became interested in collecting fish for tropical aquariums and quickly learned to dive returning to Florida to collect fish to sell to aquariums and pet stores eventually Hendrickson became involved in salvaging old shipwrecks which took her to the Dominican Republic here she also began mining amber in the mountains which she continued to do for several years eventually becoming one of the main providers of amber for scientists around the world the most remarkable of her amber discoveries were butterflies that had been preserved for millions of years and becoming fascinated by these in other discoveries hendrickson became an expert in paleo entomology the study of prehistoric insects through this experience in gained knowledge Hendrickson started to become very well known in the paleontological community and so she was able to join a group of paleontologists on various fossil hunting expeditions around the world on one of these expeditions in 1990 she aided the Black Hills Institute a private organization that prepares and sells fossils she traveled with scientists from the Institute to South Dakota the location where her most significant discovery was the place on one of the final days of that year's expedition Hendrickson was away from the rest of the team as they were working on fixing a flat tire on one of their vehicles Hendrickson decided to do a bit more prospecting for fossils before they left and as she was doing so she located a few bone fragments she searched around these fragments which led her to identify the protruding bones of a t-rex the specimen that sue discovered was particularly unique due to his completeness most other t-rex specimens lack most of the bones in their skeleton being less than 50% complete however the wrecks that sue found has about 90% of its skeleton intact not only that but this t-rex is also the largest one that has ever been found reaching just over 12 meters in length I won't go into detail here about the controversy that the specimen caused but there was basically disagreement over who legally owned the fossil the FBI ended up raiding the area where the fossil was being prepared and seized it and after a long and complicated trial the specimen was sold off to the Chicago Field Museum where sue remains today not long after this huge discovery the human sue was off exploring once again she went on many dives with marine archaeologists including a search for Napoleon's lost invasion fleet and Cleopatra's royal residence although they were unable to locate them sue Hendrickson now lives on an island off the coast of Honduras called Guanaja and she continues to be an inspiration to everyone with her mission to live life as an explorer free to travel wherever her interests take her Elizabeth Nicholls was an american-canadian paleontologist who did a great deal of work on Triassic marine reptiles such as icky sores and plesiosaurs she was born in California in 1946 earning an undergraduate degree from the University of California in 1968 she also achieved an MSC in 1972 and later did a PhD on prehistoric marine reptiles in 1989 Nichols had always been fascinated with paleontology and the ideas of past worlds and animals since the young age however she had concerns over whether the largely male-dominated science that it was at a time would embrace having a woman study it when she was 12 years old she wrote a letter to the well-known voice Chapman Andrews who was the director of the American Museum of Natural History at the time voicing these concerns Andrews was highly encouraging in his reply and Nichols kept his letter for many years as a reminder that she was indeed very capable of becoming a paleontologist Nichols eventually moved to Canada coming to work at the Royal Tyrrell Museum of Paleontology where she continued to study prehistoric marine reptiles she even managed to raise her two daughters into their teens before becoming a full-time paleontologist and once she started at the vol Tyrell Museum her excellence of fossil hunting presented the museum with a multitude of new material to be studied the senior curator of the museum dr. Don Brinkman described her as having a very productive career and the achievement she's probably most well-known for is her recovery of a huge excess or against some very challenging odds the species of Triassic active so that she recovered was the largest one of this group of animals reaching up to 21 meters in length and this particular specimen was discovered in 1991 next to a river in a very remote area of the Canadian province of British Columbia although this was clearly a very important find scientists initially decided that it would be too difficult to remove it from the rocks for study not only was this fossil absolutely enormous and very fragile but the area was situated in was densely wooded overrun with mosquitoes and often frequented by black bears so it was only accessible for a short time in the summer but nichols saw that the specimen was under threat of erosion from the overflowing river that would often submerge her and so against all the odds she decided she would remove it after six long years of fundraising for the excavation nichols and her team were able to start extracting the fossil in 1999 they used saws and jackhammers to uncover the specimen as well as helicopters to carry the huge box of stone from the site the excavation itself took three years to complete with trips being made to the area each summer between 1999 and 2001 when the last parts of the huge fossil were finally unearthed Elizabeth Nichols was rewarded for her incredible determination when she won the Rolex Award for enterprise in 2000 which provided the money needed to complete the preparation of the fossil for study and display sadly Nichols passed away in October of 2004 from cancer at the age of 58 her last scientific publication appeared in December of that year which named and describes the new species of egg disorder she had spent so long excavating preparing and studying she named this creature shonisaurus sacani ANSYS and to this day it is still the largest marine tall known to have ever existed this animal is particularly interesting not only because of its immense size but also due to the fact that it did not deserve any teeth this means the shonisaurus sacani ANSYS would have filter fed in a similar way to baleen whales today making it the earliest known example of a filter feeding ichthyosaur this incredible specimen is now on display at the Royal Tyrrell Museum of Paleontology and stands as a testament to the life and career of a truly inspiring paleontologist Elisabeth Nichols had an amazing appreciation for what the science of paleontology and fossils can tell us about our existence and although she didn't like to be seen as a role model she's certain years so many people as Nicholas once said we think the world belongs to us but fossils show us that another world exists it's like a history book that's missing some pages finding a fossil is like discovering a lost page in a history of our planet finally we come to possibly one of the most well known paleontologists of all time Mary Anning was a truly remarkable woman who lived as an extremely challenging time for women in science born in 1799 in the small town of Lyme Regis in southern England she is credited with the discoveries of several of the most important prehistoric animals that helped to completely reshape the scientific understanding of the past it was clear that Anning was a special individual from a very young age a traveling circus visited her hometown when she was just a year old and the whole town was outside to witness it however the tale goes that a thunderstorm soon developed in the skies above and had townspeople had to get into cover a woman was holding the baby Mary underneath a tree where two other people were standing but unfortunately a bolt of lightning struck the tree instantly killing all three of the people standing underneath but Mary survived she even supposedly became much more lively and intelligent from then on which many people claim to have somehow been due to the lightning this event seemed to be a foretelling of the incredible person Anning would end up being later in life Mary's father Richard Anning was a cabinetmaker and their seaside town of Lyme Regis and from a young age he would take a Mary Ann her older brother Joseph out fossil-hunting on the beach right next to their house this area contains many fossils from the Jurassic period of Earth's history and fossils the anning's would often find include the famous an ancient marine mollusk related to octopuses and squid as well as fossilized belemnite another kind of prehistoric mosque Richard Anning taught his children how to hunt for such fossils as well as how to clean and polish them they would often sell their finds to tourists in order to make money since this was the time when the science of geology was starting to develop and many people were interested in it however in the Year 1810 Richard Anning died leaving the annings in severe debt this forced Mary to have to turn her love of fossil hunting into a job in order to earn more money for her family Joseph Anning also helped to hunt and sell fossils as did mary's mother molly Anning it was in 1811 that the annings made their first major discovery of a significant scientific importance Joseph Anning located a mysterious skull pointing out of the cliff which turned out to be the first complete specimen of an ichthyosaur these prehistoric marine reptiles were proliferates throughout much of the Jurassic period and somewhat resembled dolphins and their appearance although just the skull was found at first Mary managed to discover the rest of the scout's in the following year bringing her to the attention of many of the most renowned geologists and early paleontologists at the time at the age of just 12 the Lord of a local manor eventually purchased the first exists or fossil giving the Anning is a great deal of money in return Mary's next major discovery occurred in 1821 when she discovered the very first skeleton of a plesiosaur the long necked marine reptiles of the Mesozoic Anning prepared and made a detailed sketch of the specimen which was then sent to the prominent French naturalist georges cuvier at first curvier suspected that the specimen was a fake however he later changed his judgment after making a closer examination this recognition from one of the most respected scientists of the time gave Mary the acknowledgement she deserved showing other scientists that she was someone of great value to the field unfortunately in the papers that describe the plesiosaur Mary was not credited with his discovery instead they gave thanks to Thomas budge who had purchased the specimen from Mary and made it available for study however when Mary made yet another significant discovery later on in 1828 she did get credit in the paper that described her find this discovery was the uncovering of the very first pterosaur to be found outside of Germany the one metre long dimorphodon the specimen was described in 1829 by paleontologist William Buckland and in his description he actually credited Anning with its discovery despite her obvious skill of fossil hunting and her impressive knowledge and understanding of the newly forming science of paleontology Mary Anning was still largely overlooked by much of the scientific community at a time due to the discoveries such as the plesiosaur being accredited to other people even though they were her finds much of this was due to her gender as well as her social status it was apparent that many paleontologists could not understand how a woman of her social background was able to have such knowledge of the science she was also not allowed to join the major scientific institutions such as the Geological Society of London since they did not allow women to become members until 1904 however she was eventually made an honorary member of the Society towards the end of her life Mary did become fairly well known amongst paleontologists and geologists across the world and many people turn to her for her judgment on matters to do with fossils in their Anatomy Mary Anning passed away in the year 1847 after suffering from breast cancer for several years she was unable to fossil hunt as much as she had in her final years due to the illness however when the Geological Society heard about her cancer they provided money to aid her needs when she died she was so well known that Charles Dickens even wrote about her in his journal commenting that the carpenter's daughter has won a name for herself and deserved to win it since her death Mary Anning has become even more widely recognized for the contributions she made to paleontology and the story of her life is inspiring to anyone who has heard it she was listed as one of the 10 British women who have had the most influence on the history of science according to the Royal Society as well as being a subject of many books even Google honored her in 2014 on her 215 Earth Day with a doodle featuring her finding a plesiosaur I hope this video has been able to raise some more appreciation for these three remarkable paleontologists and their incredible stories and discoveries hopefully has also been able to encourage anyone thinking of studying this science that as long as you have a passion for it you can turn it into a career the beauty of a science such as paleontology is that you can be a part of it simply by picking up a fossil and if you get good at searching for them or even extremely lucky you can make immense con Lucian's thank you so much for watching this video I hope you enjoyed it and learned something new if you would like to find out more about our worlds and the wonderful life we shower with please feel free to subscribe to the channel if you think we deserve it and if you would like to see more from us [Music]

Channel: Ben G Thomas

Views: 7,859

Rating: 4.8431373 out of 5

Keywords: Biology, Science, Paleontology, Palaeontology, Dinosaurs, Animals, Nature, Wildlife, Ben, Thomas, Prehistory, Anatomy, Fossil, Bones, mary anning, elizabeth nicholls, sue hendrickson

Id: UEWaInxB4aI

Length: 13min 41sec (821 seconds)

Published: Sun Feb 11 2018