Elaine Anderson (January 8, 1936 – March 26, 2002) was an American

paleontologist Paleontology, also spelled as palaeontology or palæontology, is the scientific study of the life of the past, mainly but not exclusively through the study of fossils. Paleontologists use fossils as a means to classify organisms, measure geolo ...

. She is best known for her work on

vertebrate paleontology Vertebrate paleontology is the subfield of paleontology that seeks to discover, through the study of fossilized remains, the behavior, reproduction and appearance of extinct vertebrates (animals with vertebrae and their descendants). It also t ...

Biography

Elaine Anderson was born in Salida,

Colorado Colorado is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States. It is one of the Mountain states, sharing the Four Corners region with Arizona, New Mexico, and Utah. It is also bordered by Wyoming to the north, Nebraska to the northeast, Kansas ...

, on January 8, 1936. She was the only child of John and Edith Anderson. She was raised in

Denver Denver ( ) is a List of municipalities in Colorado#Consolidated city and county, consolidated city and county, the List of capitals in the United States, capital and List of municipalities in Colorado, most populous city of the U.S. state of ...

, Colorado. Anderson graduated from the

University of Colorado The University of Colorado (CU) is a system of public universities in Colorado. It consists of four institutions: the University of Colorado Boulder, the University of Colorado Colorado Springs, the University of Colorado Denver, and the U ...

in 1960. She completed her Master's thesis in 1965. For her Ph.D., she opted to go to

Finland Finland, officially the Republic of Finland, is a Nordic country in Northern Europe. It borders Sweden to the northwest, Norway to the north, and Russia to the east, with the Gulf of Bothnia to the west and the Gulf of Finland to the south, ...

, becoming the first Fulbright Scholar to do so. She studied under the Finnish paleontologist Björn Kurtén, then one of the most distinguished authorities on studies on prehistoric mammals. Anderson returned to the United States after completing her Ph.D. and worked as a scientific consultant at the Pleistocene Hall at the Smithsonian Museum of Natural History,

Smithsonian Institution The Smithsonian Institution ( ), or simply the Smithsonian, is a group of museums, Education center, education and Research institute, research centers, created by the Federal government of the United States, U.S. government "for the increase a ...

. She also worked briefly at the Idaho Museum of Natural History (then known as the Idaho State University Museum of Natural History) and the Maryland Academy of Sciences. She had to leave her latter job in order to return to

and care for her ailing mother. After her mother's death, she stayed in her childhood home, often being visited by other paleontologists, mammalogists and

naturalist Natural history is a domain of inquiry involving organisms, including animals, fungi, and plants, in their natural environment, leaning more towards observational than experimental methods of study. A person who studies natural history is cal ...

s who were passing through. A frequent visitor of the Denver Museum of Nature & Science (formerly known as the Denver Museum of Natural History), she formally became a member of the staff in 1984. She was elected a Research Associate in 1994. She was also an adjunct professor of

Biology Biology is the scientific study of life and living organisms. It is a broad natural science that encompasses a wide range of fields and unifying principles that explain the structure, function, growth, History of life, origin, evolution, and ...

at the

Colorado State University Colorado State University (Colorado State or CSU) is a Public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Fort Collins, Colorado, United States. It is the flagship university of the Colorado State University Syst ...

. She died on March 26, 2002, in Denver.

Contributions to science

Anderson specialized in

and

mammals A mammal () is a vertebrate animal of the class Mammalia (). Mammals are characterised by the presence of milk-producing mammary glands for feeding their young, a broad neocortex region of the brain, fur or hair, and three middle e ...

. Her particular interest in the members of

Carnivora Carnivora ( ) is an order of placental mammals specialized primarily in eating flesh, whose members are formally referred to as carnivorans. The order Carnivora is the sixth largest order of mammals, comprising at least 279 species. Carnivor ...

earned her the affectionate nickname of "The Carnivore Lady". She was an Associate Editor of the journal ''Mammalian Species'', published by the American Society of Mammalogists from 1995 until her death. She was also involved in the field of zooarcheology, long before the term was even coined. She was also active in the conservation efforts on North American mammalian fauna. She was a member of the American Quaternary Association and was elected an Honorary Member of the Society of Vertebrate Paleontology in 2000. She is best known for her work '' Pleistocene Mammals of North America'', written in collaboration with Björn Kurtén in 1980.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Anderson, Elaine American paleontologists American women academics 1936 births 2002 deaths American women paleontologists 20th-century American women scientists 20th-century American scientists University of Colorado alumni

Biography

Contributions to science

See also

References