Mahala Andrews (9 February 1939 – 27 October 1997) was a British vertebrae

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 worked for the

National Museum of Scotland The National Museum of Scotland in Edinburgh, Scotland, was formed in 2006 with the merger of the new Museum of Scotland, with collections relating to Scottish antiquities, culture and history, and the adjacent Royal Scottish Museum (opened in ...

Early years and education

Andrews was born Sheila Mahala Andrews on 9 February 1939 in

Beckenham Beckenham () is a town in Greater London, England, within the London Borough of Bromley, in Greater London. Until 1965 it was part of the historic county of Kent. It is located south-east of Charing Cross, situated north of Elmers End and E ...

, London. She was the only child of crafts teacher, Mahala Humphrey, and GPO overseer, Alfred J. R. Andrews. Andrews moved to

Sydenham Sydenham may refer to: Places Australia * Sydenham, New South Wales, a suburb of Sydney ** Sydenham railway station, Sydney * Sydenham, Victoria, a suburb of Melbourne ** Sydenham railway line, the name of the Sunbury railway line, Melbourne ...

, London with her mother after her father died in 1941. She graduated from

Girton College, Cambridge Girton College is one of the 31 constituent colleges of the University of Cambridge. The college was established in 1869 by Emily Davies and Barbara Bodichon as the first women's college in Cambridge. In 1948, it was granted full college status ...

in 1960 with a BSc in zoology.

Later years and career

After graduating from Cambridge, she worked for seven years as a research assistant to geology professor

Thomas Stanley Westoll Prof Thomas Stanley Westoll, FRS FRSE, FGS FLS LLD (3 July 1912 – 19 September 1995) was a British geologist, and the long-time head of the Department of Geology at Newcastle University. Education and career He was born in West Hartlepool t ...

at the

University of Newcastle-upon-Tyne Newcastle University (legally the University of Newcastle upon Tyne) is a UK public research university based in Newcastle upon Tyne, North East England. It has overseas campuses in Singapore and Malaysia. The university is a red brick univer ...

. Andrews then returned to Girton College at Cambridge to complete her PhD thesis on fossil

lobe-finned fish Sarcopterygii (; ) — sometimes considered synonymous with Crossopterygii () — is a taxon (traditionally a class or subclass) of the bony fishes known as the lobe-finned fishes. The group Tetrapoda, a mostly terrestrial superclass includ ...

and also co-authored a paper on the subject in 1970. She was appointed as the Senior Scientific Officer in the Department of Geology at the Royal Scottish Museum (now the

) in Edinburgh in 1968 and became a Principal Scientific Officer in 1973. Her work, which focused on the fossil lobe-finned fish that would later evolve into the first land vertebrates, became the principal foundation on which research of the origin of amphibians is based. She published a book, ''The Discovery of Fossil Fishes in Scotland up to 1845'', in 1982 and wrote several articles on

prehistoric Prehistory, also known as pre-literary history, is the period of human history between the use of the first stone tools by hominins 3.3 million years ago and the beginning of recorded history with the invention of writing systems. The use of ...

lobe-finned fish such as ''

Onychodus ''Onychodus'' (, from Greek meaning "claw-tooth") is a genus of prehistoric lobe-finned fish which lived during the Devonian period (Eifelian - Famennian stages, around 374 to 397 million years ago). It is one of the best known of the group of ...

''. Andrews also made drawings of many of the fossils which she studied and travelled extensively including joining the first official palaeontology party to work in China in 1979. In 1989 she appeared with David Attenborough in the BBC series, Lost Worlds Vanished Lives, in episode: Magic in the Rocks. She was a

Christian Christians () are people who follow or adhere to Christianity, a monotheistic Abrahamic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus Christ. The words ''Christ'' and ''Christian'' derive from the Koine Greek title ''Christós'' (Χρι ...

and when she retired early in 1993 due to ill health she bought a house on the island of

Iona Iona (; gd, Ì Chaluim Chille (IPA: �iːˈxaɫ̪ɯimˈçiʎə, sometimes simply ''Ì''; sco, Iona) is a small island in the Inner Hebrides, off the Ross of Mull on the western coast of Scotland. It is mainly known for Iona Abbey, though there ...

to join the religious community there. She died on Iona on 27 October 1997.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Andrews, Mahala 1939 births 1997 deaths Deaths in Scotland Scottish Christians Scottish palaeontologists Women paleontologists 20th-century British women scientists