Zofia Kielan-Jaworowska

Zofia Kielan-Jaworowska (25 April 1925 – 13 March 2015) was a Polish paleobiologist. In the mid-1960s Kielan-Jaworowska led a series of Polish-Mongolian paleontological expeditions to the Gobi Desert. Kielan-Jaworowska was the first woman to serve on the executive committee of the International Union of Geological Sciences.^[1][2][3]

Early life and education

Kielan-Jaworowska's studies began in the aftermath of the Second World War: as Warsaw University's department of geology had been destroyed in 1939, she attended lectures in Roman Kozłowski's apartment.^[4] She subsequently earned a master's degree in zoology and a paleontology doctorate at Warsaw University, where she later became a professor.

Career and research

Kielan-Jaworowska was employed by the Instytut Paleobiologii of the Polska Akademia Nauk. She held a number of functions in professional organizations in Poland and the United States, and was the first woman to serve on the executive committee of the International Union of Geological Sciences.^[1]

Kielan-Jaworowska's work included the study of Devonian and Ordovician trilobites from Central Europe (Poland and Czech Republic), leading several Polish-Mongolian paleontological expeditions to the Gobi Desert, and the discovery of new species of crocodiles, lizards, turtles, dinosaurs (notably Deinocheirus), birds and multituberculates. She is author of the book Hunting for Dinosaurs, and a coauthor of the book Mammals from the Age of Dinosaurs.

Her work was published widely in peer reviewed scientific journals, books and monographs.^{[5][6][7][8][9][10][11][12][13][14][15][16][17][18][19][20][21][22][23]}

Awards and honours

She was a member of the Norwegian Academy of Science and Letters.^[24] Her book Mammals from the Age of Dinosaurs won her the prestigious Prize of the Foundation for Polish Science, in 2005. She was also awarded the Romer-Simpson Medal in 1995.

Personal life

She married Zbigniew Jaworowski, a professor of radiobiology, in 1958.^[1]

Featured scientific work

• Kielan, Z. 1953. Les trilobites Mésodévoniens des Monts des Sainte-Croix. Palaeontologia Polonica, 6: 50 pp.
• Kielan-Jaworowska, Z. 1968. Scolecodonts versus jaw apparatuses. Lethaia, 1: 39-49
• Kielan-Jaworowska, Z. 1969. Discovery of a multituberculate marsupial bone. Nature, 222: 1091—1092.
• Kielan-Jaworowska, Z. and Sochava, A. V. 1969. The first multituberculate from the Uppermost Cretaceous of the Gobi Desert. Acta Palaeontologica Polonica, 14: 355—371.
• Kielan-Jaworowska, Z. 1970. Unknown structures in multituberculate skull. Nature 226: 974—976.
• Butler , P. M. and Kielan-Jaworowska, Z. 1973: Is Deltatheridium a marsupial? — Nature 245: 105—106.
• Kielan-Jaworowska, Z. 1975. Possible occurrence of marsupial bones in Cretaceous eutherian mammals. Nature, 255: 698—699
• Crompton, A. W. and Kielan-Jaworowska, Z. 1978. Molar structure and occlusion in Cretaceous therian mammals. In Butler , P. M. and Joysey, K. A. (eds.), Studies in the Development, Function and Evolution of Teeth: 249—289. Academic Press, London and New York.
• Kielan-Jaworowska, Z. 1979. Pelvic structure and nature of reproduction in Multituberculata. Nature, 277: 402—403.
• Lillegraven, J. A., Kielan-Jaworowska, Z. and Clemens, W. A. (eds.), Mesozoic Mammals. The First Two-thirds of Mammalian History. University of California Press, Berkeley: 99-149.
• Kielan-Jaworowska, Z. 1980. Absence of ptilodonoidean multituberculates in Asia and its paleogeographic implications. Lethaia, 13: 169—175.
• Fosse, G., Kielan-Jaworowska, Z. and Skaale, S. G. 1985. The microstructure of tooth enamel in multituberculate mammals. Palaeontology, 28: 435—449.
• Kielan-Jaworowska, Z., Presley, R. and Poplin, C. 1986. Cranial vascular system in taeniolabidoid multituberculate mammals. Transactions of the Royal Society of London , B. Biological Sciences, 313: 525—602.
• Kielan-Jaworowska, Z., Dashzeveg, D. and Trofimov, B. A., 1987. Early Cretaceous multituberculates from Asia and a comparison with British and North American Jurassic forms. Acta Palaeontologica Polonica, 32: 3-47.
• Kielan-Jaworowska, Z., Crompton, A. W. and Jenkins F. A. 1987. The origin of egg laying mammals. Nature, 326: 871—873.
• Hopson, J. A., Kielan-Jaworowska, Z. and Allin, E. F. 1989. The cryptic jugal in multituberculates. Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology, 9: 201—209.
• Kielan-Jaworowska, Z. and Nessov, L. A. 1990. On the metatherian nature of the Deltatheroida, a sister group of the Marsupialia. Lethaia, 23: 1-10.
• Kielan-Jaworowska, Z. and Ensom, P. 1992. Multituberculate mammals from the Purbeck Limestone Formation (Late Jurassic) of Southern England. Palaeontology, 36: 95-126.
• Krause, D. W., Kielan-Jaworowska, Z. and Bonaparte, J. F. 1992. Ferugliotherium the first multituberculate from South America. Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology, 12: 351—376.
• Kielan-Jaworowska, Z. and Ensom, P. C. 1994. Tiny plagiaulacoid multituberculate mammals from the Purbeck Limestone Formation of Dorset, England. -Palaeontology, 37: 17-31.
• Kielan-Jaworowska, Z. 1997. Characters of multituberculates neglected in phylogenetic analyses of early mammals. Lethaia, 29: 249—266.
• Kielan-Jaworowska, Z., Cifelli, R. and Luo, Z. 1998. Alleged Cretaceous placental from down under. Lethaia 31: 267—268.
• Luo: Z.-X., Cifelli, R. L., and Kielan-Jaworowska, Z. 2001. Dual origin of tribosphenic mammals. Nature 409: 53-57.
• Kielan-Jaworowska, Z. and Hurum, J. H. 2001. Phylogeny and systematics of multituberculate mammals. Palaeontology 44: 389—429.
• Zofia Kielan-Jaworowska, Richard L. Cifelli, and Zhe-Xi Luo, 2004. Mammals from the age of dinosaurs : origins, evolution, and structure. New York: Columbia University Press. ISBN 0-231-11918-6

External links

• Professor Kielan-Jaworowska's Web-page on PAN Server

References