Mahala Andrews (9 February 1939 – 27 October 1997) was a British vertebrae

palaeontologist 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 ...

who worked for the

National Museum of Scotland The National Museum of Scotland in Edinburgh, Scotland, is a museum of Scottish history and culture. It was formed in 2006 with the merger of the new Museum of Scotland, with collections relating to Scottish antiquities, culture and history, ...

Early years and education

Andrews was born Sheila Mahala Andrews on 9 February 1939 in

Beckenham Beckenham () is a town in Greater London, England, within the London Borough of Bromley. Prior to 1965, it was part of Kent. It is situated north of Elmers End and Eden Park, east of Penge, south of Lower Sydenham and Bellingham, and west ...

, London. She was the only child of crafts teacher, Mahala Humphrey, and GPO overseer, Alfred J. R. Andrews. Andrews moved to

Sydenham Sydenham may refer to: Places Australia * Sydenham, New South Wales, a suburb of Sydney ** Sydenham railway station, Sydney * Sydenham, Victoria, a suburb of Melbourne ** Sydenham railway line, the name of the Sunbury railway line, Melbourne un ...

, London with her mother after her father died in 1941. She graduated from

Girton College, Cambridge Girton College is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge. The college was established in 1869 by Emily Davies and Barbara Bodichon as the first women's college at Cambridge. In 1948, it was granted full college status by the un ...

in 1960 with a BSc in zoology.

Later years and career

After graduating from Cambridge, she worked for seven years as a research assistant to geology professor Thomas Stanley Westoll at the University of Newcastle-upon-Tyne. Andrews then returned to Girton College at Cambridge to complete her PhD thesis on fossil

lobe-finned fish Sarcopterygii (; )—sometimes considered synonymous with Crossopterygii ()—is a clade (traditionally a class or subclass) of vertebrate animals which includes a group of bony fish commonly referred to as lobe-finned fish. These vertebrates ar ...

and also co-authored a paper on the subject in 1970. She was appointed as the Senior Scientific Officer in the Department of Geology at the Royal Scottish Museum (now the

) in Edinburgh in 1968 and became a Principal Scientific Officer in 1973. Her work, which focused on the fossil lobe-finned fish that would later evolve into the first land vertebrates, became the principal foundation on which research of the origin of amphibians is based. She published a book, ''The Discovery of Fossil Fishes in Scotland up to 1845'', in 1982 and wrote several articles on

prehistoric Prehistory, also called pre-literary history, is the period of human history between the first known use of stone tools by hominins million years ago and the beginning of recorded history with the invention of writing systems. The use o ...

lobe-finned fish such as '' Onychodus''. Andrews also made drawings of many of the fossils which she studied and travelled extensively including joining the first official palaeontology party to work in China in 1979. She was a

Christian A Christian () is a person who follows or adheres to Christianity, a Monotheism, monotheistic Abrahamic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus in Christianity, Jesus Christ. Christians form the largest religious community in the wo ...

and when she retired early in 1993 due to ill health she bought a house on the island of

Iona Iona (; , sometimes simply ''Ì'') is an island in the Inner Hebrides, off the Ross of Mull on the western coast of Scotland. It is mainly known for Iona Abbey, though there are other buildings on the island. Iona Abbey was a centre of Gaeli ...

to join the religious community there. She died on Iona on 27 October 1997.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Andrews, Mahala 1939 births 1997 deaths Scottish Christians Scottish palaeontologists Women paleontologists 20th-century British women scientists