Mary Julia Wade

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Mary Julia Wade (born February 1, 1928 in Adelaide , † September 14, 2005 in Charters Towers ) was an Australian paleontologist.

Wade grew up in the country and studied from 1947 at the University of Adelaide with a bachelor's degree in geology in 1954 and a doctorate in 1959 under Martin Glaessner on tertiary foraminifera from South Australia. She stayed at the university until 1971 and worked there with Martin Glaessner on the Ediacara fauna (for example the first description of Kimberella ). She was last there as a senior demonstrator in geology, but had no further opportunities for advancement. From 1971 until her retirement in 1993 she was at the Queensland Museum in Brisbane , initially as a curator for geology (later senior curator) and from 1980 as deputy director. There she mainly dealt with early nautiloids from the Ordovician , for which she created a morphological terminology, and with dinosaur remains (for example numerous footprints) in the Winton region (Queensland) (Lark Quarry in the Tully Ranges southwest of Winton) . The site, which she explored with Tony Thulborn, was included on the national heritage list of Australia.

In the 1980s she found the second known skull of the Muttaburrasaurus , specimens of the pliosaur Kronosaurus , other remains of the Jurassic sauropod Rhoetosaurus, first discovered in the 1920s, and a complete skeleton of a pliosaur in the Hughenden area . She also examined Cretaceous mollusks from the then inland sea of ​​the Great Artesian Basin .

She found great similarities between Cambrian nautiloids in northern China and northwest Queensland, which differed significantly from other nautiloids around the world.

After her retirement, she moved to West Queensland and helped develop fossil and dinosaur tourism centers in Richmond and Winton.

In 1994 she received the Queensland Museum Medal.

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