Joan Marion Crockford-Beattie (January 1919 – 2015) 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 ...

and

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 ...

who specialised in

Permian The Permian ( ) is a geologic period and stratigraphic system which spans 47 million years from the end of the Carboniferous Period million years ago (Mya), to the beginning of the Triassic Period 251.9 Mya. It is the last period of the Paleoz ...

bryozoa Bryozoa (also known as the Polyzoa, Ectoprocta or commonly as moss animals) are a phylum of simple, aquatic invertebrate animals, nearly all living in sedentary colonies. Typically about long, they have a special feeding structure called a l ...

n faunas.

Early life

Joan Marion Crockford was born in January 1919 at

Hunters Hill, New South Wales Hunters Hill is a suburb of the lower north shore of Sydney, in the state of New South Wales, Australia. Hunters Hill is located north-west of the Sydney central business district and is the administrative centre for the local government ar ...

. She attended Quambaar School in Bellevue Hill and enrolled in the

University of Sydney The University of Sydney (USYD), also known as Sydney University, or informally Sydney Uni, is a public research university located in Sydney, Australia. Founded in 1850, it is the oldest university in Australia and is one of the country's si ...

in 1937, where she studied geology. She graduated with a B.Sc. in 1939, and took honours and a University Medal in 1940.

Career

Crockford earned a Science Research Scholarship in 1940, and worked as a demonstrator in 1941. She graduated with her M.Sc. in 1942, and continued her research under a

Linnean Society of New South Wales The Linnean Society of New South Wales promotes ''the Cultivation and Study of the Science of Natural History in all its Branches'' and was founded in Sydney, New South Wales (Australia) in 1874 and incorporated in 1884. History The Society succe ...

Macleay Fellowship for a further three years. Due to staff shortages during

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

, Crockford continued to teach during her fellowship. Wartime restrictions also affected research, with makeshift motors being devised in the Physics department to run the slide-making tools, and materials having to be mailed to her from colleagues in Queensland (

Dorothy Hill Dorothy Hill, (10 September 1907 – 23 April 1997) was an Australian geologist and palaeontologist, the first female professor at an Australian university, and the first female president of the Australian Academy of Science. Education Doroth ...

), Tasmania and Western Australia ( Curt Teichert), rather than conducted on site. Crockford married George Beattie in 1945 and moved to

Cobar Cobar is a town in central western New South Wales, Australia whose economy is based mainly upon base metals and gold mining. The town is by road northwest of the state capital, Sydney. It is at the crossroads of the Kidman Way and Barrier Hig ...

in 1946. She continued working on her D.Sc., completing papers on Bryozoa with the help of specimens and thin sections she took with her and from staff at the

Australian Museum The Australian Museum is a heritage-listed museum at 1 William Street, Sydney central business district, New South Wales, Australia. It is the oldest museum in Australia,Design 5, 2016, p.1 and the fifth oldest natural history museum in the ...

. She graduated in 1951, and was now the mother of a three-year-old. Crockford-Beattie obtained work through Dr Norman Fisher with the

Bureau of Mineral Resources Geoscience Australia is an agency of the Australian Government. It carries out geoscientific research. The agency is the government's technical adviser on all aspects of geoscience, and custodian of the geographic and geological data and knowl ...

in Canberra, describing photographs and slides of Bryozoans in their collection obtained from the Kimberley region. This work was completed by 1956 and was published in 1957. In total, she published over 16 papers. The family moved to a number of locations due to George Beattie's work as a mining engineer including Cracow, Queensland and

Radium Hill Radium is a chemical element with the symbol Ra and atomic number 88. It is the sixth element in group 2 of the periodic table, also known as the alkaline earth metals. Pure radium is silvery-white, but it readily reacts with nitrogen (rather t ...

. Joan Crockford-Beattie mentored Robin Wass, who would pursue Bryozoa as well as June Phillips-Ross.

Personal life

Joan Crockford-Beattie and her husband had four children. She died in 2015.

Legacy

During her career, Crockford-Beattie recorded 79 species, 42 of which were new identifications. She named three new genera and the family

Cyclostomata Cyclostomi, often referred to as Cyclostomata , is a group of vertebrates that comprises the living jawless fishes: the lampreys and hagfishes. Both groups have jawless mouths with horny epidermal structures that function as teeth called ceratod ...

. She erected two families and seven genera—''Pesnastylus'', ''Minilya'', ''Streblocladia'', ''Stenodiscus'', ''Etherella'', ''Evactinostella'' and ''Liguloclema''—as well as an estimated 100 other species of Bryozoa. One was named for her, namely ''Fenestella crockfordae Campbell''.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Crockford Beattie, Joan 1919 births 2015 deaths Australian paleontologists Australian geologists Australian women geologists