Mária Mottl (22 December 1906 – 21 September 1980) was a Hungarian speleologist and vertebrate paleontologist.

Biography

Mária Mottl was born on 22 December 1906 at Budapest. She studied at the universities of Vienna, Berlin and Budapest. After completing her education, she joined Royal Hungarian Geological Institute, Budapest, and subsequently, after two years, she became a field paleontologist in the same institute. According to Fozy, Mottl was one of the “talented researchers” of the Royal Hungarian Geological Institute during that time. At the same time she produced a number of publications on caves and cave bears. Following World War II, she moved to

Styria Styria (german: Steiermark ; Serbo-Croatian and sl, ; hu, Stájerország) is a state (''Bundesland'') in the southeast of Austria. With an area of , Styria is the second largest state of Austria, after Lower Austria. Styria is bordered to ...

, Austria, where she joined Joanneum Museum in

Graz Graz (; sl, Gradec) is the capital city of the Austrian state of Styria and second-largest city in Austria after Vienna. As of 1 January 2021, it had a population of 331,562 (294,236 of whom had principal-residence status). In 2018, the popul ...

. In September 1948 Mottl started “a systematic excavation of the Repolust Cave on behalf of the Joanneum” near Badlgraben. Mottl documented all the finds from this 100,000 year-old cave. Also Mottl, along with Hubert Kessler excavated the Domica Cave, longest cave of the Slovak Karst National Park. She died on 21 September 1980 in Graz.

Notes

The Repolust cave was discovered in 1910 by a miner, which has been named after him. The site of Repolust cave was earlier planned for the mining of

guano Guano (Spanish from qu, wanu) is the accumulated excrement of seabirds or bats. As a manure, guano is a highly effective fertilizer due to the high content of nitrogen, phosphate, and potassium, all key nutrients essential for plant growth. G ...

. However “mining never took place.”

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Mottl, Maria 1906 births 1980 deaths Hungarian paleontologists Speleologists Scientists from Budapest Historical geology