Shirley Cameron Coryndon (1926–1976) was a British

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 ...

and authority on fossil hippopotami. In the 1950s she studied paleontology with Donald MacInnes at the Museum of Nairobi. Coryndon was the paleontological assistant to

Louis Leakey Louis Seymour Bazett Leakey (7 August 1903 – 1 October 1972) was a Kenyan-British palaeoanthropologist and archaeologist whose work was important in demonstrating that humans evolved in Africa, particularly through discoveries made at Olduvai ...

at the Centre for Prehistory and Paleontology. She also participated in excavations at

Olduvai Gorge The Olduvai Gorge or Oldupai Gorge in Tanzania is one of the most important paleoanthropology, paleoanthropological localities in the world; the many sites exposed by the gorge have proven invaluable in furthering understanding of early human evo ...

. She was previously married to Roger Coryndon, son of colonial administrator

Robert Coryndon Sir Robert Thorne Coryndon, (2 April 1870 – 10 February 1925) was a British colonial administrator, a former secretary of Cecil Rhodes who became Governor of the colonies of Uganda (1918–1922) and Kenya (1922–1925). He was one of the most ...

, and in 1969 she married British paleontologist R. J. G. Savage, whom she had met in Kenya in 1955. She is commemorated in the names of the fossil hippopotami '' Hexaprotodon coryndonae'' and '' Kenyapotamus coryndonae'', as well as the fossil bovine '' Ugandax coryndonae''.

Books

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References

* British palaeontologists Paleozoologists 1926 births 1976 deaths British women paleontologists 20th-century British zoologists 20th-century British women scientists {{paleontologist-stub