Mary Wade, Paleontologist

Mary Julia Wade (3 February 1928 – 14 September 2005) was an Australian palaeontologist, perhaps best known for her work on the Precambrian Ediacaran biota in South Australia.

Mary Wade (1928-2005) was born in Adelaide, South Australia and spent her early life on a property in the northeast of the state. Her family moved when she was seven to Thistle Island in Spencer Gulf where she first became interested in geology. Studying remotely via correspondence, Wade was sent on scholarship to the Wilderness School in Adelaide as a boarder from the age of 13. After she finished school, she undertook a B.Sc. with honours in geology at the University of Adelaide before graduating in 1954. Wade worked as a demonstrator while she undertook her PhD on tertiary aged microfossils, under the supervision of Professor Martin Glaessner.

After graduation in 1958, Wade took up research at the University into the earliest forms of animal life until 1968. While at the University of Adelaide she worked with Martin Glaessner on the Precambrian jellyfish fossils found in the Ediacara Hills of the Flinders Ranges.

In 1971, Wade moved to the Queensland Museum as curator of geology, and continued there becoming Deputy Director in 1980. She explored much of western Queensland, studying the fossils of early nautiloid molluscs. She developed a network of contacts around Winton, and with Dr Tony Thulborn, they organised and supervised the excavation of 3000 dinosaur footprints in the Tully Ranges. This site, known as Lark Quarry, is now a major tourist destination, and is on the National Heritage list for the quality of the dinosaur footprints.

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