Mária Mottl (22 December 1906 – 21 September 1980) was a Hungarian

speleologist Speleology () is the scientific study of caves and other karst features, as well as their composition, structure, physical properties, history, ecology, and the processes by which they form (speleogenesis) and change over time (speleomorpholog ...

and vertebrate

paleontologist Paleontology, also spelled as palaeontology or palæontology, is the scientific study of the life of the past, mainly but not exclusively through the study of fossils. Paleontologists use fossils as a means to classify organisms, measure geolo ...

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 ( ; ; ; ) is an Austrian Federal states of Austria, state in the southeast of the country. With an area of approximately , Styria is Austria's second largest state, after Lower Austria. It is bordered to the south by Slovenia, and cloc ...

, Austria, where she joined Joanneum Museum in

Graz Graz () is the capital of the Austrian Federal states of Austria, federal state of Styria and the List of cities and towns in Austria, second-largest city in Austria, after Vienna. On 1 January 2025, Graz had a population of 306,068 (343,461 inc ...

. 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 The Domica cave is a karst cave situated on the south-western border of the ''Silicka planina Plateau'' south-east of Plesivec in the Rožňava District of the Košice Region in southern Slovakia. In combination with the Baradla cave, it makes ...

, 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 ) is the accumulated excrement of seabirds or bats. Guano is a highly effective fertiliser due to the high content of nitrogen, phosphate, and potassium, all key nutrients essential for plant growth. Guano was also, to a le ...

. However “mining never took place.”

References

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