Duncan Merrilees (1922–2009) was an Australian

geologist A geologist is a scientist who studies the solid, liquid, and gaseous matter that constitutes Earth and other terrestrial planets, as well as the processes that shape them. Geologists usually study geology, earth science, or geophysics, althou ...

palaeontologist Paleontology (), also spelled palaeontology or palæontology, is the scientific study of life that existed prior to, and sometimes including, the start of the Holocene epoch (roughly 11,700 years before present). It includes the study of fossi ...

, lecturer and curator at the

Western Australian Museum The Western Australian Museum is a statutory authority within the Culture and the Arts Portfolio, established under the ''Museum Act 1969''. The museum has six main sites. The state museum, now known as WA Museum Boola Bardip, officially re-ope ...

. His research on the fossil records of mammals also founded examination into the period after the arrival of humans and their role within the ecology of the

Australian continent The continent of Australia, sometimes known in technical contexts by the names Sahul (), Australia-New Guinea, Australinea, Meganesia, or Papualand to distinguish it from the Australia, country of Australia, is located within the Southern ...

. His excavations and research into mammalian palaeontology also included description of unknown species of extinct marsupials.

Biography

Merrilees was born in

Sydney Sydney ( ) is the capital city of the state of New South Wales, and the most populous city in both Australia and Oceania. Located on Australia's east coast, the metropolis surrounds Sydney Harbour and extends about towards the Blue Mountain ...

and graduated from the city's university with a degree in chemistry in 1942. His qualifications saw him deployed during the Second World War to a

Tasmania ) , nickname = , image_map = Tasmania in Australia.svg , map_caption = Location of Tasmania in AustraliaCoordinates: , subdivision_type = Country , subdi ...

n wood pulping industry. His interest was drawn at this time to the study of

igneous rock Igneous rock (derived from the Latin word ''ignis'' meaning fire), or magmatic rock, is one of the three main The three types of rocks, rock types, the others being Sedimentary rock, sedimentary and metamorphic rock, metamorphic. Igneous rock ...

and then to the examination of

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 preserved ...

ised mammals. He moved to Western Australia in 1951, after discontinuing a teaching career, and began lecturing in

scientific literacy Scientific literacy or science literacy encompasses written, numerical, and digital literacy as they pertain to understanding science, its methodology, observations, and theories. Scientific literacy is chiefly concerned with an understanding o ...

at the

University of Western Australia The University of Western Australia (UWA) is a public research university in the Australian state of Western Australia. The university's main campus is in Perth, the state capital, with a secondary campus in Albany, Western Australia, Albany an ...

. An overlapping role with the works of the

was eventually altered to a full time position of curator of the palaeontology, mineral and meteorite collections. His major focus in palaeontology was what he referred to as the "large extinct marsupials". He retired to a location near Manjimup in the southwest of Australia.

Works

Amongst the works reporting the findings of excavations at fossil sites and study of the museum's specimens, Merrilees published a thesis on the impact of human practices introduced to the environment. In his proposed model of ecological changes after the first arrival of humans, the disappearance of

megafauna In terrestrial zoology, the megafauna (from Greek μέγας ''megas'' "large" and New Latin ''fauna'' "animal life") comprises the large or giant animals of an area, habitat, or geological period, extinct and/or extant. The most common threshold ...

as a direct consequence of their activities in Australia is comparable to

Quaternary extinction event The Quaternary period (from 2.588 ± 0.005 million years ago to the present) has seen the extinctions of numerous predominantly megafaunal species, which have resulted in a collapse in faunal density and diversity and the extinction of key ecolog ...

s on other continents. Merrilees presented his research and conclusions, conducted under the supervision of

W. D. L. Ride William David Lindsay Ride (8 May 19266 November 2011), usually credited as W. D. L. Ride, was an Australian vertebrate zoologist and paleontologist who was the chair of the committee that wrote updated editions of the International Code of Zoo ...

, in his presidential address to the

Royal Society of Western Australia The Royal Society of Western Australia (RSWA) promotes science in Western Australia. The RSWA was founded in 1914. It publishes the ''Journal of the Royal Society of Western Australia'', and has awarded the Medal of the Royal Society of Western ...

in 1967. The archaeological sites he examined includes Devils Lair during 1970, an important source of fossilised material, in collaboration with

Charles Dortch Charles Eugene Dortch (born 1940) is a US born archaeologist, largely known for his life and works in Western Australia. Biography Charlie Dortch was born in Atlanta, Georgia, where he began his interest in the peoples of the first nations, and ...

. His conservation activities were associated with a personal interest in farming, and in overseeing an official program of semi-cleared land purchase that sought to both enhance the agricultural potential and rehabilitation of bushland to its previous state. Twenty-four papers were published with his professional contributions; a further six articles were authored as non-scientific works. He described two extinct species of '' Sthenurus'', a kangaroo-like marsupial. According to the anonymous author of the obituary issued by his museum, Merrilees insisted on being listed in alphabetical order in the credits of papers he wrote with other, less senior, authors to elevate their name in the citations. Forty volumes of his field notes from archaeological sites around Australia are held at his museum's library.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Merrilees, Duncan 1922 births 2009 deaths Australian paleontologists Australian archaeologists Australian paleoanthropologists Paleobiologists 20th-century archaeologists