In the 21st century, science pays homage to an English woman who became a fossil hunter from a young age, when paleontology did not yet bear that name and the guidelines for research on primitive organisms arose from the intelligences of male naturalists : Mary Anning (1799-1847), who identified the first ichthyosaur skeleton and found several important fish fossils, becoming the trigger for women paleontologists at the end of the 18th century, in addition to opening guidelines for the development of the discipline.
222 years after that first love affair between a lady and “her monsters”, there is a plethora of women who dedicate their lives to the study of petrified organisms, from microscopic to large reptiles. Felisa Aguilar Arellano, president of the Council of Paleontology of the National Institute of Anthropology and History (INAH), says that in the case of Mexico, the development of the discipline occurred at the end of the 19th century, but since then and until the first half of the 20th century, there is no news that women have participated in its development.
It is documented that until the 1950s and 1960s, when Mexico began to train specialists in the field, the role of women in this field became important, explains Felisa Aguilar, referring that one of the first schools was the Paleontology Section Exploration Management of Petróleos Mexicanos (Pemex), created by Dr. Manuel Maldonado-Koerdell, who invites a woman, his student, to analyze paleontological materials, especially invertebrates recovered in exploration campaigns.
She was Gloria Alencáster Ybarra (1927-2018), a biologist by training, who in addition to carrying out those and many other studies, began to teach and train new generations of scientists, and at the time she joined the Paleontology Department of the Institute of Geology from UNAM to two of her students: Alicia Silva Pineda and María del Carmen Perrilliat Montoya; the first, to study the impressions of plants collected by the IG geologists; and the second, Cretaceous molluscs.
These three women are the ones who lay the foundations and open paths to more women interested in paleontology, and sow in the new generations of biologists, the concern to see life through fossils.
In the 1970s and 1980s, Mexican paleontology became independent from geology and specific research projects began to emerge, with approaches to answer their own questions. In this impulse, more women become important, such as Blanca Estela Huitrón, a scholar of the paleoenvironments of the Paleozoic.
Felisa Aguilar Arellano reports that there are currently around 100 Mexican paleontologists for the entire country. From the participation in congresses and the formation of the board of directors of the Council of Paleontology, he sees a proportion in gender issues of 50 to 50 for this exciting discipline, which in the case of female work adds the minutiae of detail in the observation.
A paleontologist for the heritage side of fossils
Today, around 2,700 women work at the National Institute of Anthropology and History (INAH), including researchers, archaeologists, architects, restorers, teachers, administrators and managers. Many of them carry out work in the field that, due to the physical efforts that they entail, still sometimes questions society if they can do it.
“Long walks, carrying things, camping, enduring extreme weather, eating what is available; sometimes go to these companies as group leaders, mostly made up of men, I deal with gangs of workers, with communities where gender roles are exercised with other beliefs; however, there are myths that have been falling and, fortunately, today there are many women who are doing this type of activity: archaeologists, engineers, biologists, and paleontologists are no exception”, says Felisa Aguilar.
At INAH, adds the specialist in the Cretaceous, really very few specialists are linked to paleontological issues. But biologists with other profiles, due to the work dynamics, have joined the study of ancient Pleistocene contexts, when contact between megafauna —such as the mammoth— with humans appears.
The Council of Paleontology has a lot of female representation, since of the 12 members, half are women from various institutions in different regions of the country who are at the forefront of paleontological research. Beginning with its president, Felisa Aguilar Arellano, who in 2004 became the first and, to date, the only paleontologist with this professional profile hired by the INAH.
Like Mary Anning with the ichthyosaur (a large marine reptile), Felisa Aguilar has dedicated herself to unraveling the mysteries of the dinosaurs found in Mexican territory, especially those that lived during the Cretaceous on the coasts of the interior sea, in what is now It is the Coahuila desert, and with its scientific and management work, INAH managed to finalize the opening of Rincón Colorado in 2018, the first paleontological zone in Mexico available for public visits.
There are several satisfactions of the paleontologist. One has been the recovery of the complete and articulated tail of a specimen of a duck-billed hadrosaur, five meters long and 72 million years old, found in 2013 by the ejidatarios José and Rodolfo López Espinoza, in the municipality of General Cepeda, in the Coahuila desert. Her rescue involved a challenge because in addition to scientific work, together with UNAM researchers, she involved management and work with the communities surrounding the discovery.
This rescue, together with the research and management tasks, as well as the work with communities and civil society in various municipalities of Coahuila, have broadened the panorama of paleontology and given another vision to approach this discipline, in which it is only important to identify and propose species or paleoclimates, but also to understand the patrimonial part. “Because at INAH we see the patrimonial part of fossils and that is something they don’t teach us in schools,” says Felisa Aguilar.
Among the works of this type in Coahuila, the case of Múzquiz stands out, where the INAH helped to form and offers advice to a community museum; the Las Águilas paleontological site, where 207 fossilized dinosaur footprints are preserved in situ, 72 million years old, which she has studied and valued; in addition to the opening of Rincón Colorado.
Fossils are sources of information, but also heritage, and that is the particularity of paleontology at INAH, says the specialist.
“I came to paleontology late, when I was studying biology, because fossils did not attract my attention, but through field work I realized that it is not easy to read rocks, and then I was fascinated to understand how that that you have there today, in front of your eyes, takes you back to elements completely different from what you see today”, says the researcher.
“Neither in the field, nor in the laboratory —he continues— I have never felt discriminated against by my colleagues, in the communities, perhaps a little strange… like when I had to clean the dinosaur tracks in Las Águilas, because the ejidatarios found it uncomfortable I grabbed the shovel and they told me: “No, no, no. Leave the shovel there, I’ll do it”; that was 10 years ago and they have also learned from my work, they no longer find it strange that I do this type of task; Of course, with his daughters it is something else. One has to talk and establish communication with the community,” says Felisa Aguilar.
Regarding the inconveniences that field work implies and the difficulty for the feminine coquetry that she could bring with her, she says that paleontologists generally work seasons in which they camp and where they will not be able to bathe for several days, so she tries to keep in her backpack what necessary to be comfortable, carry basic cleaning supplies to feel fresh at all times, since she works in the desert, and something that she will always keep in her field backpack, next to the spoon, are her earrings and a scarf.
Conference series
This week, in which the International Day of Women and Girls in Science is commemorated), the INAH, through the Council of Paleontology and the National Museum of World Cultures, will carry out the cycle of conferences “Women in paleontology”, where eight paleontologists share their experiences in the classroom, in the laboratory and in the field, and also speak about the future of this scientific discipline in the country.
Two talks and two conferences, broadcast on the INAH TV YouTube channel, will take place on February 8, 10 and 11, at 12:00 p.m. (Central Mexico time zone), and will lead to a dialogue with the public, Therefore, it is also a way to motivate the new generations to learn about and dedicate themselves to this discipline, “since there is still much to explore and discover about the fossil record in the Mexican territory,” says the researcher from the INAH Coahuila Center.