Hildegarde Howard
Hildegarde Howard (born April 3, 1901 in Washington, DC , † February 28, 1998 in Laguna Hills ) was an American paleornithologist . She is known for researching fossil birds from the La Brea tar pits .
Life
Howard moved with her parents to Los Angeles in 1906 , where her father was a screenwriter and her mother a musician and composer. From 1920 she studied biology and paleontology at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) and at the University of California, Berkeley with a bachelor's degree in 1924. While still a student, she worked for Chester Stock at the La Brea tar pits. Under Loye Miller of UCLA, she did research on the fossil turkey Paraparvo from La Brea. In 1926 she received her Masters degree from Berkeley and in 1928 she received her PhD (The Avifauna of Emoryville Shellmound). After that, she was a permanent curator at the Natural Museum of Los Angeles County.
From the very rich finds of bird fossils in La Brea, she examined turkeys, eagles, vultures, a forest ibis, owls and vulture falcons. They also examined bird fossils from the Green River Formation in Oregon (Fossil Lake), from caves in Nevada and Mexico and from marine deposits of the Channel Islands in California and seabirds from the Tertiary of Southern California (as the Alk Mancalla from the Miocene ).
In 1930 she married the paleontologist Anson Wylde (died 1984), who also worked on the La Brea fossils and their exhibition at the National Museum of Los Angeles County. In 1961 she officially retired, but remained scientifically active until the 1990s.
In 1957, she described the first pseudo-toothed bird from North America (Osteodontornis), Miocene seabirds with the largest wingspan ever found in birds (14 to 16 feet in Osteodontornis). The specimen is on display at the Santa Barbara Museum of Natural History.
In 1973 she became an honorary member of the Society of Vertebrate Paleontology and in 1953 she received the William Brewster Medal . In 1962 she was a Guggenheim Fellow .
She was the first woman president of the Southern California Academy of Sciences.
literature
- Kenneth E. Campbell (Editor) :. Papers in avian paleontology honoring Hildegarde Howard. Contributions in Science, Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County, No. 330, 1980 (with biography and list of publications)
- Kenneth E. Campbell Hildegarde Howard, 1901-1998 , Society of Vertebrate Paleontology News Bulletin, No. 178, 2000, 131-133
Fonts
- The avifauna of Emoryville shellmound. University of California Publications in Zoology, Vol. 32, 1929, No. 2, 301-394.
- A gigantic "toothed" marine bird from the Miocene of California. Bulletin No. 1, Department of Geology, Santa Barbara Museum of Natural History, 1957
- Fossil Birds. Science Series No. 17, Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County, 1962
- A review of the extinct avian genus Mancalla. Contributions in Science, Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County, No. 203, 1970
Web links
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Howard, Hildegarde |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | American paleontologist |
| DATE OF BIRTH | April 3, 1901 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Washington DC |
| DATE OF DEATH | February 28, 1998 |
| Place of death | Laguna Hills |