Patricia Woolley (born 1932) is an Australian

zoologist Zoology ( , ) is the scientific study of animals. Its studies include the structure, embryology, classification, habits, and distribution of all animals, both living and extinct, and how they interact with their ecosystems. Zoology is one ...

recognised for her work with

marsupial Marsupials are a diverse group of mammals belonging to the infraclass Marsupialia. They are natively found in Australasia, Wallacea, and the Americas. One of marsupials' unique features is their reproductive strategy: the young are born in a r ...

s, specifically the

dasyurid The Dasyuridae are a family of marsupials native to Australia and New Guinea, including 71 extant species divided into 17 genera. Many are small and mouse-like or shrew-like, giving some of them the name marsupial mice or marsupial shrews, but th ...

family. ''Pseudantechinus woolleyae'' (Woolley's false antechinus) is named for her.

Biography

Patricia Woolley was born in 1932 in

Denmark Denmark is a Nordic countries, Nordic country in Northern Europe. It is the metropole and most populous constituent of the Kingdom of Denmark,, . also known as the Danish Realm, a constitutionally unitary state that includes the Autonomous a ...

, Western Australia. Her mother was a

nurse Nursing is a health care profession that "integrates the art and science of caring and focuses on the protection, promotion, and optimization of health and human functioning; prevention of illness and injury; facilitation of healing; and alle ...

and her father a

medical practitioner A physician, medical practitioner (British English), medical doctor, or simply doctor is a health professional who practices medicine, which is concerned with promoting, maintaining or restoring health through the study, diagnosis, prognosis ...

. She completed her Junior Certificate at Albany High School. After moving to

Perth Perth () is the list of Australian capital cities, capital city of Western Australia. It is the list of cities in Australia by population, fourth-most-populous city in Australia, with a population of over 2.3 million within Greater Perth . The ...

, Woolley sought to study science at

Perth Modern School Perth Modern School (colloquially known as Perth Mod) is a public co-educational academically selective high school, located in Subiaco, an inner city suburb of Perth, Western Australia. Perth Modern is Western Australia's only fully academica ...

however at that time women were not allowed to study chemistry at the school, so she attended Perth Technical College and later Leederville Technical College instead. There she focused on

mathematics Mathematics is a field of study that discovers and organizes methods, Mathematical theory, theories and theorems that are developed and Mathematical proof, proved for the needs of empirical sciences and mathematics itself. There are many ar ...

and through the encouragement of a teacher went on to study mathematics at the

University of Western Australia University of Western Australia (UWA) is a public research university in the Australian state of Western Australia. The university's main campus is in Crawley, Western Australia, Crawley, a suburb in the City of Perth local government area. UW ...

. After losing interest in mathematics, Woolley switched to zoology and graduated with a BSc in 1955. After graduation Woolley worked as a research assistant under Professor Harry Waring, researching marsupials. She did experimental work with Waring until moving with her husband to Canberra in 1960. She lectured in zoology at the

Australian National University The Australian National University (ANU) is a public university, public research university and member of the Group of Eight (Australian universities), Group of Eight, located in Canberra, the capital of Australia. Its main campus in Acton, A ...

before deciding to work towards a Ph.D. After completing her Ph.D. in 1966, she worked as a lecturer and associate professor at

La Trobe University La Trobe University is a public university, public research university based in Melbourne, Victoria (Australia), Victoria, Australia. Its main campus is located in the suburb of Bundoora, Victoria, Bundoora. The university was established in 1 ...

in Melbourne, retiring in 2000.

Scientific career

The majority of Woolley’s work focused on marsupial biology, dealing with species in both Australia and

Papua New Guinea Papua New Guinea, officially the Independent State of Papua New Guinea, is an island country in Oceania that comprises the eastern half of the island of New Guinea and offshore islands in Melanesia, a region of the southwestern Pacific Ocean n ...

. For her Ph.D. she researched the sex differentiation in dasyurids, specifically in the ''

Antechinus ''Antechinus'' (// ('ant-echinus')) is a genus of small dasyurid marsupial endemic to Australia. They resemble mice with the bristly fur of shrews. Names They are also sometimes called 'broad-footed marsupial mice', 'pouched mice', or 'Ante ...

'' genus. One of the findings of her Ph.D. research was that certain dasyurid species are

semelparous Semelparity and iteroparity are two contrasting reproductive strategies available to living organisms. A species is considered ''semelparous'' if it is characterized by a single reproduction, reproductive episode before death, and ''iteroparous ...

, meaning they live long enough to reproduce, and then die, which is unusual among mammals. After receiving her Ph.D., Woolley began her career as an associate professor at La Trobe University, where she was the first zoologist on the faculty. While teaching at La Trobe, she continued her research on dasyurids. In this research, she looked at

penis A penis (; : penises or penes) is a sex organ through which male and hermaphrodite animals expel semen during copulation (zoology), copulation, and through which male placental mammals and marsupials also Urination, urinate. The term ''pen ...

morphology Morphology, from the Greek and meaning "study of shape", may refer to: Disciplines *Morphology (archaeology), study of the shapes or forms of artifacts *Morphology (astronomy), study of the shape of astronomical objects such as nebulae, galaxies, ...

in many species of the ''Antechinus'' genus, and was able to reclassify several species that were incorrectly put in the ''Antechinus'' genus, based on a certain structure on the penis of the animal. From 1980 to 1990 Woolley travelled in Papua New Guinea to trap dasyurids, and observe them in the wild.

Awards and recognition

Prior to Woolley’s research little was known of dasyurids. Her findings and her studies prompted significant interest from the zoology community, and in 1988, a new species of ''Pseudantechinus'' (Woolley's false antechinus or ''Pseudantechinus woolleyae'') was named after her recognition of her contributions to dasyurid studies. In 2023 a new species of

mulgara Mulgaras are the six small rat-sized species in the genus ''Dasycercus''. They are marsupial carnivores, closely related to the Tasmanian devil and the quolls, that live in deserts and spinifex grasslands of arid Australia. They are nocturnal, ...

(the northern mulgara or ''Dasycercus woolleyae'') was named in recognition of her extensive work on the genus. Other awards: *Outstanding Achievement Award from the

Society of Woman Geographers The Society of Woman Geographers was established in 1925 at a time when women were excluded from membership in most professional organizations, such as the Explorers Club, who would not admit women until 1981. It is based in Washington, D.C., and ...

(1999) *Honorary Life Member of the Australian Mammal Society (2000) *Honorary Life Member of the

American Society of Mammalogists The American Society of Mammalogists (ASM) was founded in 1919. Its primary purpose is to encourage the study of mammal A mammal () is a vertebrate animal of the Class (biology), class Mammalia (). Mammals are characterised by the presence ...

(2001)

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Woolley, Patricia Australian zoologists Living people 1932 births Australian National University alumni University of Western Australia alumni Academic staff of La Trobe University Australian women scientists Members of the Society of Woman Geographers