Mary L. Droser
{{short description|American paleontologist|bot=PearBOT 5}}
{{use mdy dates|date=May 2023}}
{{Infobox scientist
|name = Mary Droser
|image = Mary L. Droser, paleontologist.jpg
|image_size =
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|birth_date =
|birth_place = United States
|death_date =
|death_place =
|field = Paleontology
|work_institution = University of California, Riverside
|alma_mater = University of Southern California
Binghamton University
University of Rochester
|thesis_title = Trends in Extant and Depth of bioturbation in Great Basin Precambrian-Ordovician Strata, California, Nevada and Utah
|thesis_url = http://digitallibrary.usc.edu/digital/collection/p15799coll29/id/351140
|thesis_year = 1987
|academic_advisors =
|doctoral_advisor = David Bottjer
|doctoral_students =
|known_for =
|prizes =
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}}
Mary L. Droser is an American paleontologist. She is known for her work in South Australia, including the discovery of several fossils to which she had naming rights. {{as of|2023}}, she is part of a team preparing the nomination of the Flinders Ranges as a World Heritage Site.
Early life and education
Droser says that spending summers with her family on Shelter Island, New York first inspired her interest in the natural world. She says, "At age 5 I announced I wanted to be a marine biologist, then by age 10 I’d decided to become a geologist".
She pursued geology at the University of Rochester and Binghamton University, and went on to obtain a PhD in paleontology at the University of Southern California.
Career
Droser has been travelling to the Flinders Ranges since around 2001, first with her young family, to study the Ediacaran fossils on what was Nilpena Station (on land that was then part of a cattle station, now part of Nilpena Ediacara National Park).
=Discoveries and naming=
In 2008, Droser's discovery of the fossil Funisia dorothea in Australia was published in the journal Science. Funisia is a single-species genus of upright worm-like animals that lived 555 million years ago. Funisia was hailed as the first known species to sexually reproduce. She named the species to honor her mother, Dorothy Droser, saying "She's come with me on digs and done all the cooking and taken care of the kids. It seemed the right thing to do."
Droser named the fossil Obamus, after U.S. president Barack Obama. In 2018, while exploring the Flinders Ranges, over {{cvt|200|km}} north of Adelaide in South Australia, Droser's team found the 550-million-year-old fossil. She explained that the creature resembled an ear, a distinctive feature of Obama, and so named it for the former president.
On the same trip to the Flinders Ranges in 2018, the team also discovered the fossil Attenborites janeae, which Droser named for naturalist Sir David Attenborough.
=Other activities=
{{as of|2023}}, Droser is part of a team acting on behalf of the Government of South Australia and the traditional owners of the Flinders Ranges, the Adnyamathanha people, to lodge the nomination for the Flinders Ranges as a World Heritage Site.{{cite web | title=South Australia’s Flinders Ranges nominated for Unesco world heritage status | website=The Guardian | date=21 August 2022 | url=https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2022/aug/21/south-australias-flinders-ranges-nominated-for-unesco-world-heritage-status | access-date=7 December 2022}} Research done by her, along with South Australian Museum palaeontologist Diego Garcia-Bellido, will be submitted as part of the UNESCO World Heritage nomination, which will be voted on in 2026.{{cite web | last=Dillon | first=Meagan | website=ABC News| title=Set in stone | date=21 April 2023 | url=https://www.abc.net.au/news/2023-04-22/ediacaran-fossil-park-to-open-to-tourists/102220196 | access-date=4 May 2023}}
Awards and honors
- 1997: Charles Schuchert Award given by the Paleontological Society to a person under 40 whose work reflects excellence and promise in the science of paleontology
- 2020: Doctoral Dissertation Advisor/Mentor Award from University of California, Riverside
- 2022: National Academy of Sciences Award in Early Earth and Life Sciences - Charles Doolittle Walcott Medal{{Cite web|url=http://www.nasonline.org/news-and-multimedia/news/2022-nas-awards-recipients.html|title=2022 NAS Awards Recipients Announced}}
References
{{reflist|refs=
{{cite news | url = http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/uk/science/article3593959.ece | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20080727010504/http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/uk/science/article3593959.ece | url-status = dead | archive-date = July 27, 2008 | date = March 21, 2008 | title = Fossil sheds light on the history of sex | work = The Times | location=London | first=Lewis | last=Smith | access-date=2010-05-03}}
- {{cite web|url=https://www.paleosoc.org/past-awardees|title=Past Awardees|work=Paleontological Society|access-date=2021-05-28}}
}}
External links
- [https://profiles.ucr.edu/mary.droser UC Riverside Profiles: Mary L Droser]
- {{cite web|url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tT-kpqL9caA | title=Nilpena with Mary Droser |website=YouTube | date=26 April 2015 }}
- {{cite web|url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hM4guM6zFrA&list=PLcN_GhEshEbu4IHZ6hOXBG-7jDrnZX56x&index=5 | title=Ediacaran Textures of Life: The ecological, biological and sedimentological -Dr. Mary Droser | website=YouTube | date=26 August 2021 }}
- {{cite web|url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1ys_T5hJlGg | title=The Origin of Life & Unearthing a Treasure Trove of Fossils with Dr. Mary Droser |publisher=NASA Astrobiology | website=YouTube | date=25 May 2023 }}
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Category:American paleontologists
Category:American women paleontologists
Category:20th-century American scientists
Category:20th-century American women scientists