Johns Hopkins University Press
Rebels, Scholars, Explorers: Women in Vertebrate Paleontology
Key Metrics
- Annalisa Berta
- Johns Hopkins University Press
- Hardcover
- 9781421439709
- 9.1 X 6.1 X 1.1 inches
- 1.25 pounds
- Science > Paleontology
- English
Secure TransactionBook Description
For centuries, women have played key roles in defining and developing the field of vertebrate paleontology. Yet very little is known about these important paleontologists, and the true impacts of their contributions have remained obscure. In Rebels, Scholars, Explorers, Annalisa Berta and Susan Turner celebrate the history of women bone hunters, delving into their fascinating lives and work. At the same time, they explore how the discipline has shaped our understanding of the history of life on Earth.
Berta and Turner begin by presenting readers with a review of the emergence of vertebrate paleontology as a science, emphasizing the contributions of women to research topics and employment. This is followed by brief biographical sketches and explanations of early discoveries by women around the world over the past 200 years, including those who who held roles as researchers, educators, curators, artists, and preparators. Forging new territory, Berta and Turner highlight the barriers and challenges faced by women paleontologists, describing how some managed to overcome those obstacles in order to build careers in the field. Finally, drawing on interviews with a diverse group of contemporary paleontologists, who share their experiences and offer recommendations to aspiring fossil hunters, they provide perspectives on what work still needs to be done in order to ensure that women's contributions to the field are encouraged and celebrated.
Uncovering and relating lost stories about the pivotal contributions of women in vertebrate paleontology doesn't just make for enthralling storytelling, but also helps ensure a richer and more diverse future for this vibrant field. Illuminating the discoveries, collections, and studies of fossil vertebrates conducted by women in vertebrate paleontology, Rebels, Scholars, Explorers will be on every paleontologist's most-wanted list and should find a broader audience in the burgeoning sector of readers from all backgrounds eager to learn about women in the sciences.
Author Bio
Annalisa Berta is professor of biology at San Diego State University, where she specializes in the evolutionary biology of marine mammals, especially baleen whales. Berta is coauthor of Marine Mammals, Third Edition: Evolutionary Biology and author of Return to the Sea: The Life and Evolutionary Times of Marine Mammals. She lives in San Diego, CA.
Source: University of Chicago Press
San Diego State University biologist Annalisa Berta has been elected by a council of her peers as a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS), a prestigious honor recognizing her many contributions to the study of the evolutionary biology of marine mammals.
Berta received her Ph.D. in paleontology from the University of California, Berkeley, in 1979, then did post-doctoral work at the University of Florida. She came to SDSU in 1982 as a lecturer teaching human anatomy. At the time, her research expertise was mostly in terrestrial carnivores, but a research trip to the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D.C. changed the course of her career.
There, she was asked to help study a fossil seal and she became intrigued with marine mammals. In the decades since she joined SDSU as a tenure-track faculty member in 1989, Berta has published numerous highly cited studies and a handful of books for both academic and popular audiences. While her earlier marine mammal work focused on pinnipeds (seals, sea lions and walruses), she earned distinction in the field with her later studies of whale anatomy and evolution.
Source: San Diego State University
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