Mary R. Dawson

Dr. Mary R. Dawson is the curator emeritus of Vertebrate Paleontology at the Carnegie Museum of Natural History in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. She held the position of curator from 1972 to 2003, and was chair of the Earth Sciences Division from 1973 to 1997.

Dr. Dawson was raised in Michigan and received her Ph.D. from the University of Kansas. During a research expedition to the Arctic in the 1970s and '80s she and her team discovered the first fossils of Tertiary land animals that documented a migration route between North America and Europe. This migration route provided evidence and support for the theory of plate tectonics.

In 1992 Dr. Dawson became the first American woman to receive the A.S. Romer-G.G. Simpson medal, considered the highest honor bestowed by the Society of Vertebrate Paleontology.

In 2006 she disputed the classification of the Laotian rock rat, arguing that it is a member of the family Diatomyidae, which had previously been believed to have gone extinct 11 million years ago.

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