Mary Gordon Calder (c. 1906–1992) was a Scottish

paleobotanist Paleobotany, which is also spelled as palaeobotany, is the branch of botany dealing with the recovery and identification of plant remains from geological contexts, and their use for the biological reconstruction of past environments (paleogeogr ...

. She is known for her work on

Carboniferous The Carboniferous ( ) is a geologic period and system of the Paleozoic that spans 60 million years from the end of the Devonian Period million years ago ( Mya), to the beginning of the Permian Period, million years ago. The name ''Carboniferou ...

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 ...

plants and

Jurassic The Jurassic ( ) is a geologic period and stratigraphic system that spanned from the end of the Triassic Period million years ago (Mya) to the beginning of the Cretaceous Period, approximately Mya. The Jurassic constitutes the middle period of ...

conifer Conifers are a group of cone-bearing seed plants, a subset of gymnosperms. Scientifically, they make up the division Pinophyta (), also known as Coniferophyta () or Coniferae. The division contains a single extant class, Pinopsida. All ext ...

Early years

Mary Gordon Calder was born in Uddingston,

South Lanarkshire gd, Siorrachd Lannraig a Deas , image_skyline = , image_flag = , image_shield = Arms_slanarkshire.jpg , image_blank_emblem = Slanarks.jpg , blank_emblem_type = Council logo , image_map ...

Scotland Scotland (, ) is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Covering the northern third of the island of Great Britain, mainland Scotland has a border with England to the southeast and is otherwise surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean to ...

to William Calder, a general manager of a warehouse. She contracted

poliomyelitis Poliomyelitis, commonly shortened to polio, is an infectious disease caused by the poliovirus. Approximately 70% of cases are asymptomatic; mild symptoms which can occur include sore throat and fever; in a proportion of cases more severe sym ...

as a child, requiring her to wear

leg braces Orthotics ( el, Ορθός, translit=ortho, lit=to straighten, to align) is a medical specialty that focuses on the design and application of orthoses, or braces. An is "an externally applied device used to influence the structural and functio ...

for the rest of her life.

Life in Glasgow

Calder was interested in biological and chemical sciences, and at the age of 18, she entered the

University of Glasgow , image = UofG Coat of Arms.png , image_size = 150px , caption = Coat of arms Flag , latin_name = Universitas Glasguensis , motto = la, Via, Veritas, Vita , ...

to study

botany Botany, also called , plant biology or phytology, is the science of plant life and a branch of biology. A botanist, plant scientist or phytologist is a scientist who specialises in this field. The term "botany" comes from the Ancient Greek w ...

. Her mother, a reputedly passionate amateur botanist, may have influenced her in this. She graduated in 1929 with honours and went on to work as a researcher in Glasgow. She first pursued her doctorate under

James Montagu Frank Drummond James Montagu Frank Drummond FRSE FLS (1881–1965) was a Scottish botanist, descended from a long line of botanists including James Drummond all living in the Inverarity area around Kirriemuir, and mainly working on the Forthringham estate. Fr ...

(not to be confused with the Australian botanist James Drummond), the then Regius Professor of Botany in the University of Glasgow. Her first paper was about tomatoes, a choice influenced by Drummond. However, it was not published, as Drummond was replaced as Regius Professor of Botany by John Walton in 1930. Walton, an internationally recognised paleobotanist, encouraged her to study plant

s, a field Calder herself was interested in. She abandoned her earlier paper on tomatoes and began work on a catalogue of the large collection of coal ball slides by the Scottish paleobotanist

Robert Kidston Dr Robert Kidston, FRS FRSE LLD (29 June 1852 – 13 July 1924) was a Scottish botanist and palaeobotanist. Life He was born in Bishopton House in Renfrewshire on 29 June 1852 the youngest of twelve children of Robert Alexander Kidston, a Gl ...

. She published her first paper on

scale trees (class

Isoetopsida Lycopodiopsida is a class of vascular plants known as lycopods, lycophytes or other terms including the component lyco-. Members of the class are also called clubmosses, firmosses, spikemosses and quillworts. They have dichotomously branching s ...

of division

Lycopodiophyta The lycophytes, when broadly circumscribed, are a vascular plant (tracheophyte) subgroup of the kingdom Plantae. They are sometimes placed in a division Lycopodiophyta or Lycophyta or in a subdivision Lycopodiophytina. They are one of the oldes ...

) and received her PhD in 1933. Calder continued working at the University of Glasgow and published several more papers on Carboniferous lycopods in 1933 to 1934. In 1935, she published a paper on

petrified In geology, petrifaction or petrification () is the process by which organic material becomes a fossil through the replacement of the original material and the filling of the original pore spaces with minerals. Petrified wood typifies this p ...

pteridosperm The term Pteridospermatophyta (or "seed ferns" or "Pteridospermatopsida") is a polyphyletic group of extinct seed-bearing plants (spermatophytes). The earliest fossil evidence for plants of this type is the genus ''Elkinsia'' of the late Devonian ...

s (seed ferns) using the revolutionary cellulose peel techniques developed by Walton in 1928. Unlike previous techniques which used thin sections of rock, the cellulose peel method allowed more detail of the fossils to be preserved. She became a lecturer at the University in 1936, allowing her to pursue her own studies. In 1938, Calder worked on the

seed plant A spermatophyte (; ), also known as phanerogam (taxon Phanerogamae) or phaenogam (taxon Phaenogamae), is any plant that produces seeds, hence the alternative name seed plant. Spermatophytes are a subset of the embryophytes or land plants. They inc ...

s ''Calymmatotheca kidstonii'' and ''Samaropsis scotica'', both from the Tournaisian age (345.3 to 359.2

million years ago The abbreviation Myr, "million years", is a unit of a quantity of (i.e. ) years, or 31.556926 teraseconds. Usage Myr (million years) is in common use in fields such as Earth science and cosmology. Myr is also used with Mya (million years ago ...

) of the Lower Carboniferous ( Mississippian). The two species were later studied further by Albert G. Long in 1959 and emended to '' Genomosperma kidstonii'' and '' Lyrasperma scotica''. They became significant as one of the oldest known seed plants discovered with fossilised

ovule In seed plants, the ovule is the structure that gives rise to and contains the female reproductive cells. It consists of three parts: the '' integument'', forming its outer layer, the ''nucellus'' (or remnant of the megasporangium), and the ...

s, providing an important early glimpse into the

evolution Evolution is change in the heritable characteristics of biological populations over successive generations. These characteristics are the expressions of genes, which are passed on from parent to offspring during reproduction. Variation ...

of reproduction in seed plants.

Life in London and Manchester

In 1940, Calder moved to London and worked as a lecturer in

Westfield College Westfield College was a small college situated in Hampstead, London, from 1882 to 1989. It was the first college to aim to educate women for University of London degrees from its opening. The college originally admitted only women as students and ...

(then only admitting women). In 1950 she was appointed as the senior lecturer in paleobotany at the

University of Manchester The University of Manchester is a public university, public research university in Manchester, England. The main campus is south of Manchester city centre, Manchester City Centre on Wilmslow Road, Oxford Road. The university owns and operates majo ...

. She succeeded the English

botanist Botany, also called , plant biology or phytology, is the science of plant life and a branch of biology. A botanist, plant scientist or phytologist is a scientist who specialises in this field. The term "botany" comes from the Ancient Greek wo ...

William Henry Lang in the post. She published one more paper in 1953 on ''

Araucaria mirabilis ''Araucaria mirabilis'' is an extinct species of coniferous tree from Patagonia, Argentina. It belongs to the genus ''Araucaria''. ''A. mirabilis'' are known from large amounts of very well preserved silicified wood and cones from the Cerro Cua ...

'', ''

Araucarites sanctaecrucis ''Araucarites sanctaecrucis'' is an extinct coniferous tree from Patagonia, Argentina. Its exact affinities are unknown and it is currently assigned to the Form classification, form genus ''Araucarites'' of the family Araucariaceae. ''A. sanctaec ...

'', and '' Pararaucaria patagonica''; all of which are araucarian

s from the

Middle Jurassic The Middle Jurassic is the second Epoch (geology), epoch of the Jurassic Period (geology), Period. It lasted from about 174.1 to 163.5 million years ago. Fossils of land-dwelling animals, such as dinosaurs, from the Middle Jurassic are relatively ...

petrified forest Petrified wood, also known as petrified tree (from Ancient Greek meaning 'rock' or 'stone'; literally 'wood turned into stone'), is the name given to a special type of '' fossilized wood'', the fossilized remains of terrestrial vegetation. ...

s of

Argentina Argentina (), officially the Argentine Republic ( es, link=no, República Argentina), is a country in the southern half of South America. Argentina covers an area of , making it the List of South American countries by area, second-largest ...

. She did not publish any more papers during her tenure, possibly because of a difficulty in adjusting to life in Manchester. She left the University of Manchester in 1964. She officially retired in 1966 to the town of

Milngavie Milngavie ( ; gd, Muileann-Ghaidh) is a town in East Dunbartonshire, Scotland and a suburb of Glasgow. It is on the Allander Water, at the northwestern edge of Greater Glasgow, and about from Glasgow city centre. It neighbours Bearsden. Mi ...

in Scotland near Glasgow, where she died in 1992.

Legacy

Calder left a substantial bequest to the University of Glasgow. The funds were used to improve the University's facilities of the Institute of Biomedical and Life Sciences. A plaque in her memory is in the Joseph Black Building.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Calder, Mary Gordon Paleobotanists Scottish scholars and academics 1900s births 1992 deaths Scottish women academics Scottish women scientists Women botanists Women paleontologists People from Uddingston Alumni of the University of Glasgow 20th-century British botanists 20th-century British women scientists Academics of the University of Glasgow Academics of the University of Manchester Scottish palaeontologists Scottish botanists

Early years

Life in Glasgow

Life in London and Manchester

Legacy

See also

References