The forgotten science of dinosaurs and stones

The first dinosaur studied by science was discovered by a woman. Mary Anne Woodhouse's trained eye was able to distinguish on the side of a road in the south of England, in 1822, some enormous teeth that turned out to be from an iguanodon, a herbivorous reptile about 120 million years old and about three tons. It was the first dinosaur that would be studied by science, one of the three that gave rise to the term for the first time in history and the first, of many, to forget the contribution of women. That copy was registered in the name of Woodhouse's husband, Gideon Mantell, a doctor who was fond of paleontology, given that until the beginning of the 20th century only men had the right to leave records of their scientific careers.

Her story is similar to that of 170 other pioneers told in the book Women of the Stones, written by paleontology student Fernanda Castaño and researcher Sebastián Apesteguía, and recently published by Vázquez Mazzini Editores and the Azara Foundation. In more than 360 pages, the material offers brief biographies, from pioneers amateurs to current professionals, in different historical periods that span the five continents.

The compilation of their lives reflects some clear conclusions: the Europeans were a global inspiration, especially the British. They got the first boost thanks to their class privileges and generous companions (fathers or husbands) who took advantage of their patriarchal advantages – to varying degrees depending on the case – to pave the way for them. And the glass walls that delimited their expertise have not yet been broken.

The case of the British Mary Horner fascinated the author Fernanda Castaño: “The father, a fairly important geologist at the Geological Society of London, instilled scientific vocations in his two female daughters. Mary's sister dedicated herself to botany. She not only made illustrations of what she saw in the field, but she tried to study it. That seems like a fantastic example to me,” she says. These parents did not give their daughters the expected education of wives and hostesses, but seemed to wish them a more stimulating and exploratory life, training them in sciences and languages.

Some relationships were so progressive that they seem out of context. Like that of the Hawaiian Annie Montague Alexander with her father, in the 19th century, highlighted by the paleontologist Apesteguía, second author of the book. “He made her super independent and with habits that, for the time, were very masculine. She shot with a rifle, hunted, climbed with it. In fact, her father died on an expedition in Africa, in Victoria Falls, crushed by a rock, in front of her. Castaño adds that she “was a lesbian, she had many female companions in her life and he never had problems accepting it, he supported her. She was a very interesting character.”

One of the most famous scientists, with books and movies about her life, is Mary Anning. Her father was a modest carpenter and fossil enthusiast who trained her, along with her brother, in fossil collecting. Thanks to her influence, she was able to find the first remains of several specimens that later became popular such as those of the Ichthyosaur, the Plesiosaur – the first complete one -, the first pterosaur found outside of Germany and numerous smmonites, a species of snail with tentacles from 400 million years ago.

Despite these promising beginnings, women were trapped in the small, the plants, the air or the water. That is, in the disciplinary gaps that men were not interested in filling. “There are not many women who have dedicated themselves to studying dinosaurs. In general, they were micropaleontologists or paleobotanists. They didn't normally go prospecting because they weren't allowed to. That was something masculine, so they were left with the topics that men did not work on,” explains the passionate Castaño. “Currently, there is even a tendency for many women paleontologists to work, in the case of vertebrates, on marine mammals or reptiles. “So there aren't as many women working on dinosaurs because men took care of the big saurians.”

The discovery of the careers of these scientists touched Apesteguía in a personal way. “I had not realized that there were no women in certain topics until, once I had written the book, I started searching and saw that one of the great pioneers in Argentina was my director Zulma –Brandoni de Gasparini”. He recognizes that “there are still few women in the issues star of paleontology. Although popular fame is not the motivation of those who dedicate themselves to science, the low visibility that female scientists have in the population affects the encouragement of other vocations and their social valuation.

That bond of solidarity between fathers and daughters that encouraged the first paleontologists and geologists is somehow recycled in the alliance of the authors of Women of the Stones. The well-versed researcher Apesteguía discovered the blog de Castaño and proposed to him to write the book. “I was very amazed by what she published, I discovered stories about her thanks to her and it inspired me to contact her and discuss the idea,” says the paleontologist. She describes it as a football achievement. “Imagine. I study paleontology and Sebastián Apesteguía contacted me to write the book. It was as if they had promoted me to River's first team.”

Although the book is very broad, the authors continue to discover relevant biographies of scientists around the world, so they are already thinking about a second part.

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