Mary Gordon Calder (c. 1906–1992) was a

Scottish Scottish usually refers to something of, from, or related to Scotland, including: *Scottish Gaelic, a Celtic Goidelic language of the Indo-European language family native to Scotland *Scottish English *Scottish national identity, the Scottish ide ...

paleobotanist Paleobotany or palaeobotany, also known as paleophytology, is the branch of botany dealing with the recovery and identification of plant fossils from geological contexts, and their use for the biological reconstruction of past environments (pale ...

. She is known for her work on

Carboniferous The Carboniferous ( ) is a Geologic time scale, geologic period and System (stratigraphy), system of the Paleozoic era (geology), era that spans 60 million years, from the end of the Devonian Period Ma (million years ago) to the beginning of the ...

fossil A fossil (from Classical Latin , ) is any preserved remains, impression, or trace of any once-living thing from a past geological age. Examples include bones, shells, exoskeletons, stone imprints of animals or microbes, objects preserve ...

plants and

Jurassic The Jurassic ( ) is a Geological period, geologic period and System (stratigraphy), stratigraphic system that spanned from the end of the Triassic Period million years ago (Mya) to the beginning of the Cretaceous Period, approximately 143.1 Mya. ...

conifer Conifers () are a group of conifer cone, cone-bearing Spermatophyte, seed plants, a subset of gymnosperms. Scientifically, they make up the phylum, division Pinophyta (), also known as Coniferophyta () or Coniferae. The division contains a sin ...

Early years

Mary Gordon Calder was born in

Uddingston Uddingston (, ) is a small town in South Lanarkshire, Scotland. It is on the north side of the River Clyde, south-east of Glasgow city centre, and acts as a dormitory suburb for the city. Geography and boundaries Uddingston is located to t ...

South Lanarkshire South Lanarkshire (; ) is one of 32 unitary authorities of Scotland. It borders the south-east of the Glasgow City council area and contains some of Greater Glasgow's suburban towns, as well as many rural towns and villages. It also shares bor ...

Scotland Scotland is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It contains nearly one-third of the United Kingdom's land area, consisting of the northern part of the island of Great Britain and more than 790 adjac ...

to William Calder, a general manager of a warehouse. She contracted

poliomyelitis Poliomyelitis ( ), commonly shortened to polio, is an infectious disease caused by the poliovirus. Approximately 75% of cases are asymptomatic; mild symptoms which can occur include sore throat and fever; in a proportion of cases more severe ...

as a child, requiring her to wear

leg braces Orthotics () is a medical specialty that focuses on the design and application of orthoses, sometimes known as braces, calipers, or splints. An is "an externally applied device used to influence the structural and functional characteristics of ...

for the rest of her life.

Life in Glasgow

Calder was interested in biological and chemical sciences, and at the age of 18, she entered the

University of Glasgow The University of Glasgow (abbreviated as ''Glas.'' in Post-nominal letters, post-nominals; ) is a Public university, public research university in Glasgow, Scotland. Founded by papal bull in , it is the List of oldest universities in continuous ...

to study

botany Botany, also called plant science, is the branch of natural science and biology studying plants, especially Plant anatomy, their anatomy, Plant taxonomy, taxonomy, and Plant ecology, ecology. A botanist or plant scientist is a scientist who s ...

. Her mother, a reputedly passionate amateur botanist, may have influenced her in this. She graduated in 1929 with honours and went on to work as a researcher in Glasgow. She first pursued her doctorate under James Montagu Frank Drummond (not to be confused with the Australian botanist James Drummond), the then Regius Professor of Botany in the University of Glasgow. Her first paper was about tomatoes, a choice influenced by Drummond. However, it was not published, as Drummond was replaced as Regius Professor of Botany by John Walton in 1930. Walton, an internationally recognised paleobotanist, encouraged her to study plant

s, a field Calder herself was interested in. She abandoned her earlier paper on tomatoes and began work on a catalogue of the large collection of coal ball slides by the Scottish paleobotanist

Robert Kidston Robert Kidston (29 June 1852 – 13 July 1924) was a Scottish botanist and palaeobotanist. Life He was born in Bishopton House in Renfrewshire on 29 June 1852 the youngest of twelve children of Robert Alexander Kidston, a Glasgow businessman, ...

. She published her first paper on

scale trees (class

Isoetopsida Lycopodiopsida is a class of vascular plants also known as lycopsids, lycopods, or lycophytes. Members of the class are also called clubmosses, firmosses, spikemosses and quillworts. They have dichotomously branching stems bearing simple leaves ...

of division

Lycopodiophyta The lycophytes, when broadly circumscribed, are a group of vascular plants that include the clubmosses. They are sometimes placed in a division Lycopodiophyta or Lycophyta or in a subdivision Lycopodiophytina. They are one of the oldest lineag ...

) and received her PhD in 1933. Calder continued working at the University of Glasgow and published several more papers on Carboniferous

lycopod Lycopodiopsida is a class of vascular plants also known as lycopsids, lycopods, or lycophytes. Members of the class are also called clubmosses, firmosses, spikemosses and quillworts. They have dichotomously branching stems bearing simple leaves ...

s in 1933 to 1934. In 1935, she published a paper on

petrified In geology, petrifaction or petrification () is the process by which organic material becomes a fossil through the replacement of the original material and the filling of the original pore spaces with minerals. Petrified wood typifies this proce ...

pteridosperm Pteridospermatophyta, also called pteridosperms or seed ferns, are a polyphyletic grouping of extinct Spermatophyte, seed-producing plants. The earliest fossil evidence for plants of this type are the Lyginopteridales, lyginopterids of late Devon ...

s (seed ferns) using the revolutionary cellulose peel techniques developed by Walton in 1928. Unlike previous techniques which used thin sections of rock, the cellulose peel method allowed more detail of the fossils to be preserved. She became a lecturer at the university in 1936, allowing her to pursue her own studies. In 1938, Calder worked on the

seed plant A seed plant or spermatophyte (; New Latin ''spermat-'' and Greek ' (phytón), plant), also known as a phanerogam (taxon Phanerogamae) or a phaenogam (taxon Phaenogamae), is any plant that produces seeds. It is a category of embryophyte (i.e. la ...

s ''Calymmatotheca kidstonii'' and ''Samaropsis scotica'', both from the

Tournaisian The Tournaisian is in the ICS geologic timescale the lowest stage or oldest age of the Mississippian, the oldest subsystem of the Carboniferous. The Tournaisian age lasted from Ma to Ma. It is preceded by the Famennian (the uppermost st ...

age Age or AGE may refer to: Time and its effects * Age, the amount of time someone has been alive or something has existed ** East Asian age reckoning, an Asian system of marking age starting at 1 * Ageing or aging, the process of becoming older ...

(345.3 to 359.2

million years ago Million years ago, abbreviated as Mya, Myr (megayear) or Ma (megaannum), is a unit of time equal to (i.e. years), or approximately 31.6 teraseconds. Usage Myr is in common use in fields such as Earth science and cosmology. Myr is also used w ...

) of the Lower Carboniferous ( Mississippian). The two species were later studied further by Albert G. Long in 1959 and emended to '' Genomosperma kidstonii'' and '' Lyrasperma scotica''. They became significant as one of the oldest known seed plants discovered with fossilised

ovule In seed plants, the ovule is the structure that gives rise to and contains the female reproductive cells. It consists of three parts: the ''integument'', forming its outer layer, the ''nucellus'' (or remnant of the sporangium, megasporangium), ...

s, providing an important early glimpse into the

evolution Evolution is the change in the heritable Phenotypic trait, characteristics of biological populations over successive generations. It occurs when evolutionary processes such as natural selection and genetic drift act on genetic variation, re ...

of reproduction in seed plants.

Life in London and Manchester

In 1940, Calder moved to London and worked as a lecturer in

Westfield College Westfield College was a small college situated in Hampstead, London, from 1882 to 1989. It was the first college to aim to educate women for University of London degrees from its opening. The college originally admitted only women as students and ...

(then only admitting women). In 1950 she was appointed as the senior lecturer in paleobotany at the

University of Manchester The University of Manchester is a public university, public research university in Manchester, England. The main campus is south of Manchester city centre, Manchester City Centre on Wilmslow Road, Oxford Road. The University of Manchester is c ...

. She succeeded the English

botanist Botany, also called plant science, is the branch of natural science and biology studying plants, especially Plant anatomy, their anatomy, Plant taxonomy, taxonomy, and Plant ecology, ecology. A botanist or plant scientist is a scientist who s ...

William Henry Lang William Henry Lang FRS FRSE FLS (12 May 1874–29 August 1960) was a British botanist and served as Barker professor of cryptogamic botany at the University of Manchester. He was also a specialist in paleobotany. Life The son of Thomas Bils ...

in the post. She published one more paper in 1953 on ''

Araucaria mirabilis ''Araucaria mirabilis'' is an extinct species of coniferous tree from Patagonia, Argentina. It belongs to the genus ''Araucaria''. ''A. mirabilis'' are known from large amounts of very well preserved silicified wood and cones from the Cerro Cua ...

'', '' Araucarites sanctaecrucis'', and '' Pararaucaria patagonica''; all of which are araucarian

s from the

Middle Jurassic The Middle Jurassic is the second Epoch (geology), epoch of the Jurassic Period (geology), Period. It lasted from about 174.1 to 161.5 million years ago. Fossils of land-dwelling animals, such as dinosaurs, from the Middle Jurassic are relativel ...

petrified forest Petrified wood (from Ancient Greek meaning 'rock' or 'stone'; literally 'wood turned into stone'), is the name given to a special type of ''fossilized wood'', the fossilized remains of terrestrial plant, terrestrial vegetation. ''Petrifaction ...

s of

Argentina Argentina, officially the Argentine Republic, is a country in the southern half of South America. It covers an area of , making it the List of South American countries by area, second-largest country in South America after Brazil, the fourt ...

. She did not publish any more papers during her tenure, possibly because of a difficulty in adjusting to life in Manchester. She left the University of Manchester in 1964. She officially retired in 1966 to the town of

Milngavie Milngavie ( ; ) is a town in East Dunbartonshire, Scotland and a suburb of Glasgow. It is on the Allander Water, at the northwestern edge of Greater Glasgow, and about from Glasgow city centre. It neighbours Bearsden. Milngavie is a commuter t ...

in Scotland near Glasgow, where she died in 1992.

Legacy

Calder left a substantial bequest to the University of Glasgow. The funds were used to improve the university's facilities of the Institute of Biomedical and Life Sciences. A plaque in her memory is in the Joseph Black Building.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Calder, Mary Gordon British paleobotanists Scottish scholars and academics 1900s births 1992 deaths Scottish women academics 20th-century Scottish women scientists Scottish women botanists British women paleontologists People from Uddingston Alumni of the University of Glasgow 20th-century Scottish botanists Academics of the University of Glasgow Academics of the University of Manchester Scottish palaeontologists

Early years

Life in Glasgow

Life in London and Manchester

Legacy

See also

References