Teresa Maryańska (1937 – 3 October 2019) was a Polish

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 ...

who specialized in

Mongolia Mongolia is a landlocked country in East Asia, bordered by Russia to the north and China to the south and southeast. It covers an area of , with a population of 3.5 million, making it the world's List of countries and dependencies by po ...

dinosaur Dinosaurs are a diverse group of reptiles of the clade Dinosauria. They first appeared during the Triassic Geological period, period, between 243 and 233.23 million years ago (mya), although the exact origin and timing of the #Evolutio ...

s, particularly pachycephalosaurians and

ankylosauria Ankylosauria is a group of herbivorous dinosaurs of the clade Ornithischia. It includes the great majority of dinosaurs with armor in the form of bony osteoderms, similar to turtles. Ankylosaurs were bulky quadrupeds, with short, powerful limbs ...

ns. She is considered not only as one of Poland's but also one of the world's leading experts on dinosaurs.

Career

Initially, Mary's studies were regarding invertebrate paleontology. However, she became a member of the 1964, 1965, 1970, and 1971 Polish–Mongolian expeditions to the

Gobi Desert The Gobi Desert (, , ; ) is a large, cold desert and grassland region in North China and southern Mongolia. It is the sixth-largest desert in the world. The name of the desert comes from the Mongolian word ''gobi'', used to refer to all of th ...

, and changed her focus. She described many finds from these fossils, often with Halszka Osmólska. In 1974, Maryanska and Halszka Osmólska were among the first "women to describe new kinds of dinosaurs". Since 1961, Maryańska was affiliated with the Muzeum Ziemi of the Polska Akademia Nauk and was vice-director there from 1976 to 2006, when she retired. Some of the dinosaurs she described: * '' Homalocephale'' (1974), with Halszka Osmólska * ''

Prenocephale ''Prenocephale'' (meaning "sloping head") is a genus of small pachycephalosaurid dinosaur from the Late Cretaceous Nemegt Formation of Mongolia. It was similar in many ways to its close relative, ''Homalocephale''. Discovery The holotype specime ...

'' (1974), with Halszka Osmólska * '' Tylocephale'' (1974), with Halszka Osmólska * '' Pachycephalosauria'' (1974), with Halszka Osmólska * ''

Bagaceratops ''Bagaceratops'' (meaning "small-horned face") is a genus of small protoceratopsid dinosaurs that lived in Asia during the Late Cretaceous, around 72 to 71 million years ago. ''Bagaceratops'' remains have been reported from the Barun Goyot Forma ...

'' (1975), with Halszka Osmólska * ''

Saichania ''Saichania'' (Mongolian meaning "beautiful one") is a genus of herbivorous ankylosaurid dinosaur from the Late Cretaceous period of Mongolia. The first fossils of ''Saichania'' were found in the early 1970s in Mongolia. In 1977 the type speci ...

'' (1977) * ''

Tarchia ''Tarchia'' (meaning "brainy one") is a genus of herbivorous ankylosauridae, ankylosaurid dinosaur from the late Cretaceous of Mongolia. Discovery and naming In 1970, a Polish-Mongolian expedition discovered an ankylosaurian skull near Khulsan. ...

'' (1977) * '' Barsboldia'' (1981), with Halszka Osmólska * '' Goyocephale'' (1982), with Halszka Osmólska and Altangerel Perle Alan Feduccia notes that Maryanska and her colleagues (Osmólska and Wolsan) produced in 2002 the "most impressive analysis of the oviraptorosaurs". Amongst her many publications are contributions to three chapters of the 2nd edition of ''

The Dinosauria ''The Dinosauria'' is an encyclopedia on dinosaurs, edited by paleontologists David B. Weishampel, Peter Dodson, and Halszka Osmólska. It has been published in two editions by the University of California Press, with the first edition in 1990 ...

'': the chapters on the Therizinosauroidea, the

Ankylosauria Ankylosauria is a group of herbivorous dinosaurs of the clade Ornithischia. It includes the great majority of dinosaurs with armor in the form of bony osteoderms, similar to turtles. Ankylosaurs were bulky quadrupeds, with short, powerful limbs ...

and on the Pachycephalosauria. She was a member of the Scientific Council of the Institute of Paleobiology of the Polish Academy of Sciences in Warsaw from 1981 to 2006.

Personal life and demise

Maryańska was known for her fondness for literature. She died on 3 October 2019 at age 82.

Selected publications

Books

* T. Maryańska (1970). ''O gadach bez sensacji''. Wydawnictwa Geologiczne.

Articles

* T. Maryańska (1970). Remains of armoured dinosaurs from the uppermost Cretaceous in Nemegt Basin, Gobi Desert. ''Palaeontologia Polonica'' 21:23-32. * T. Maryańska (1971). New data on the skull of ''Pinacosaurus grangeri'' (Ankylosauria). ''Palaeontologia Polonica'' 25:45-53. * T. Maryańska and H. Osmólska (1974). Pachycephalosauria, a new suborder of ornithischian dinosaurs. ''Palaeontologia Polonica'' 30:45-102. * T. Maryańska and H. Osmólska (1975). Protoceratopsidae (Dinosauria) of Asia. ''Palaeontologica Polonica'' 33:133-181. * T. Maryańska (1977). Ankylosauridae (Dinosauria) from Mongolia. ''Palaeontologia Polonica'' 37:85-151. * T. Maryańska and H. Osmólska (1981). First lambeosaurine dinosaur from the Nemegt Formation, Upper Cretaceous, Mongolia. ''Acta Palaeontologica Polonica'' 26(3-1):243-255. * T. Maryańska and H. Osmólska (1981). Cranial anatomy of ''Saurolophus angustirostris'' with comments on the Asian Hadrosauridae (Dinosauria). ''Palaeontologia Polonica'' 42:5-24. * A. Perle, T. Maryańska, and H. Osmólska (1982). ''Goyocephale lattimorei'' gen. et sp. n., a new flat-headed pachycephalosaur (Ornithischia, Dinosauria) from the Upper Cretaceous of Mongolia. ''Acta Palaeontologica Polonica'' 27(1-4):115-127. * T. Maryańska and H. Osmólska (1984). Postcranial anatomy of ''Saurolophus angustirostris'' with comments on other hadrosaurs. ''Palaeontologia Polonica'' 46:119-141. * T. Maryańska and H. Osmólska (1985). On ornithischian phylogeny. ''Acta Palaeontologica Polonica'' 30(3-4):137-149. * T. Maryańska (1990). Pachycephalosauria. In: D.B. Weishampel, H. Osmólska, and P. Dodson (eds.), ''The Dinosauria''. University of California Press, Berkeley 564-577. * T. Maryańska (2000). Sauropods from Mongolia and the former Soviet Union. In: M.J. Benton, M.A. Shishkin, D.M. Unwin, and E.N. Kurochkin (eds.), ''The Age of Dinosaurs in Russia and Mongolia''. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge 456-461. * T. Maryańska, H. Osmólska, and M. Wolsan (2002). Avialan status for Oviraptorosauria. ''Acta Palaeontologica Polonica'' 47(1):97-116. * J.M. Clark, T. Maryańska, and R. Barsbold (2004). Therizinosauroidea. In: D.B. Weishampel, P. Dodson, and H. Osmólska (eds.), ''The Dinosauria'' (second edition). University of California Press, Berkeley 151-164. * M.K. Vickaryous, T. Maryańska, and D.B. Weishampel (2004). Ankylosauria. In: D.B. Weishampel, P. Dodson, and H. Osmólska (eds.), ''The Dinosauria'' (second edition). University of California Press, Berkeley 363-392.

References