Teresa Maryańska

{{Infobox scientist

| name = Teresa Maryańska

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| caption = {{circa|1920}}

| birth_name =

| birth_date = 1937

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| death_date = 3 October 2019

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| citizenship = Poland

| alma_mater =

| field = Paleontology

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Teresa Maryańska (1937 – 3 October 2019) was a Polish paleontologist who specialized in Mongolian dinosaurs, particularly pachycephalosaurians and ankylosaurians.{{cite encyclopedia |last=Lambert |first=David |title= Maryańska, T.| encyclopedia= The Dinosaur Data Book |year=1990 |publisher=Avon Books |location=New York |isbn=0-380-75896-2 |pages=[https://archive.org/details/dinosaurdatabook00lamb/page/280 280] |chapter-url-access=registration |chapter-url=https://archive.org/details/dinosaurdatabook00lamb/page/280 }} She is considered not only as one of Poland's{{cite book | first= Anthony J.| last= Martins|title=Introduction to the study of dinosaurs |edition=2nd |year=2006 |publisher=Blackwell Pub. |location=Malden, Massachusetts |pages=78 }} but also one of the world's leading experts on dinosaurs.{{cite book | first= Zofia| last= Kielan-Jaworska|title=Autobiografia |year=2005 |url=http://www.paleo.pan.pl/people/Kielan-Jaworowska/Publications/Autobiografia.pdf | via= paleo.pan.pl |page=26 | language= pl| url-status= dead| archiveurl= https://web.archive.org/web/20051220222113/https://www.paleo.pan.pl/people/Kielan-Jaworowska/Publications/Autobiografia.pdf| archivedate= 2005-12-20| access-date= 2025-06-03}}

Career

Initially, Mary's studies were regarding invertebrate paleontology. However, she became a member of the 1964, 1965, 1970, and 1971 Polish–Mongolian expeditions to the Gobi Desert,{{cite book |last=Colbert |first=Edwin H. |author-link=Edwin H. Colbert |editor=Benton, Michael J. |editor-link=Benton, Michael J. |editor2=Shishkin, Mikhail A. |editor3=Unwin, David M. |editor4=Kurochkin, Evgenii N. |title=The Age of Dinosaurs in Russia and Mongolia |year=2000 |publisher=Cambridge University Press |location= Cambridge |isbn=0-521-55476-4 |pages=211–234 |chapter=Asiatic dinosaur rush }} and changed her focus. She described many finds from these fossils, often with Halszka Osmólska.{{cite journal |last=Dodson |first=Peter |year=2008 |title=Polish Women in the Gobi – In Loving Memory of Halszka Osmólska (1930–2008) |journal= American Paleontologist |volume=16 |issue=3 |pages=30–34 |url=https://www.priweb.org/files/pubtext/item_pdf_199.pdf#page=36 |access-date=2017-12-09 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160629170834/https://www.priweb.org/files/pubtext/item_pdf_199.pdf#page=36 |archive-date=2016-06-29 |url-status=dead }}

In 1974, Maryanska and Halszka Osmólska were among the first "women to describe new kinds of dinosaurs".{{cite book| last= Dodson| first= Peter |year= 1998| title= The Horned Dinosaurs: A Natural History| publisher= Princeton University Press| page= 9| isbn= 9780691059006}}

Since 1961,{{cite journal| title= In memoriam: Teresa Maryańska (1937–2019)| work= Acta Palaeontologica Polonica | volume= 64 | number=4 | page= 756| year= 2019 | url= https://www.app.pan.pl/archive/published/app64/app006952019.pdf | publisher= | doi= 10.4202/app.00695.2019 | first1= Magdalena |last1= Borsuk-Białynicka | first2= Gwidon| last2= Jakubowski| first3= Jerzy| last3= Lefeld| access-date= June 3, 2025}} Maryańska was affiliated with the Muzeum Ziemi of the Polska Akademia Nauk{{rp|776}} and was vice-director there from 1976 to 2006, when she retired.{{cite web |url=http://nauka-polska.pl/dhtml/raporty/ludzieNauki?rtype=opis&objectId=7052&lang=pl |title=dr hab. Teresa Maryańska |author= |access-date=9 March 2013| url-status=dead}}

Some of the dinosaurs she described:

Homalocephale (1974), with Halszka Osmólska
Prenocephale (1974), with Halszka Osmólska
Tylocephale (1974), with Halszka Osmólska
Pachycephalosauria (1974), with Halszka Osmólska
Bagaceratops (1975), with Halszka Osmólska
Saichania (1977)
Tarchia (1977)
Barsboldia (1981), with Halszka Osmólska
Goyocephale (1982), with Halszka Osmólska and Altangerel Perle

Alan Feduccia notes that Maryanska and her colleagues (Osmólska and Wolsan) produced in 2002 the "most impressive analysis of the oviraptorosaurs".{{cite book| last= Feduccia| first= Alan| year= 2012| title= Riddle of the Feathered Dragons: Hidden Birds of China| publisher= Yale University Press| isbn= | page= }}

Amongst her many publications are contributions to three chapters of the 2nd edition of The Dinosauria: the chapters on the Therizinosauroidea, the Ankylosauria and on the Pachycephalosauria.{{cite book |editor-last1= Weishampel| editor-first1= David B. |editor-last2= Dodson| editor-first2= Peter |editor-last3= Osmólska| editor-first3= Halszka |title=The Dinosauria |edition=2nd |year=2004 |publisher=University of California Press |location=Berkeley, California |isbn=0-520-24209-2}}

She was a member of the Scientific Council of the Institute of Paleobiology of the Polish Academy of Sciences in Warsaw from 1981 to 2006.

Personal life and demise

Maryańska was known for her fondness for literature.

She died on 3 October 2019 at age 82.{{Cite web|url=http://nekrologi.wyborcza.pl/0,11,,460468,Teresa-Marya%C5%84ska-nekrolog.html|title = Teresa Maryańska, Warszawa, 09.10.2019 | website= nekrologi.wyborcza.pl| language= pl| date= | access-date= }}

Selected publications

=Books=

T. Maryańska (1970). O gadach bez sensacji. Wydawnictwa Geologiczne.

=Articles=

T. Maryańska (1970). Remains of armoured dinosaurs from the uppermost Cretaceous in Nemegt Basin, Gobi Desert. Palaeontologia Polonica 21:23-32.
T. Maryańska (1971). New data on the skull of Pinacosaurus grangeri (Ankylosauria). Palaeontologia Polonica 25:45-53.
T. Maryańska and H. Osmólska (1974). Pachycephalosauria, a new suborder of ornithischian dinosaurs. Palaeontologia Polonica 30:45-102.
T. Maryańska and H. Osmólska (1975). Protoceratopsidae (Dinosauria) of Asia. Palaeontologica Polonica 33:133-181.
T. Maryańska (1977). Ankylosauridae (Dinosauria) from Mongolia. Palaeontologia Polonica 37:85-151.
T. Maryańska and H. Osmólska (1981). First lambeosaurine dinosaur from the Nemegt Formation, Upper Cretaceous, Mongolia. Acta Palaeontologica Polonica 26(3-1):243-255.
T. Maryańska and H. Osmólska (1981). Cranial anatomy of Saurolophus angustirostris with comments on the Asian Hadrosauridae (Dinosauria). Palaeontologia Polonica 42:5-24.
A. Perle, T. Maryańska, and H. Osmólska (1982). Goyocephale lattimorei gen. et sp. n., a new flat-headed pachycephalosaur (Ornithischia, Dinosauria) from the Upper Cretaceous of Mongolia. Acta Palaeontologica Polonica 27(1-4):115-127.
T. Maryańska and H. Osmólska (1984). Postcranial anatomy of Saurolophus angustirostris with comments on other hadrosaurs. Palaeontologia Polonica 46:119-141.
T. Maryańska and H. Osmólska (1985). On ornithischian phylogeny. Acta Palaeontologica Polonica 30(3-4):137-149.
T. Maryańska (1990). Pachycephalosauria. In: D.B. Weishampel, H. Osmólska, and P. Dodson (eds.), The Dinosauria. University of California Press, Berkeley 564-577.
T. Maryańska (2000). Sauropods from Mongolia and the former Soviet Union. In: M.J. Benton, M.A. Shishkin, D.M. Unwin, and E.N. Kurochkin (eds.), The Age of Dinosaurs in Russia and Mongolia. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge 456-461.
T. Maryańska, H. Osmólska, and M. Wolsan (2002). Avialan status for Oviraptorosauria. Acta Palaeontologica Polonica 47(1):97-116.
J.M. Clark, T. Maryańska, and R. Barsbold (2004). Therizinosauroidea. In: D.B. Weishampel, P. Dodson, and H. Osmólska (eds.), The Dinosauria (second edition). University of California Press, Berkeley 151-164.
M.K. Vickaryous, T. Maryańska, and D.B. Weishampel (2004). Ankylosauria. In: D.B. Weishampel, P. Dodson, and H. Osmólska (eds.), The Dinosauria (second edition). University of California Press, Berkeley 363-392.