Fields Paleornithology Name Hildegarde Howard | Alma mater U.C. Berkeley | |
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Born April 3, 1901Washington, D.C. ( 1901-04-03 ) Institutions Los Angeles County Museum of Natural History Education University of California, Berkeley (1928) Books Eagles and Eagle-like Vultures of the Pleistocene of Rancho La Brea Parents Hattie Sterling Case Howard, Clifford Howard Awards Guggenheim Fellowship for Natural Sciences, US & Canada, Brewster Medal | ||
Hildegarde Howard (April 3, 1901 – February 28, 1998) was the "preeminent paleornithologist", pioneering the field of avian paleontology. She was well known for her discoveries in the La Brea Tar Pits, such as the Rancho La Brea eagles. She was the first woman awarded the Brewster Medal and the first woman president of the Southern California Academy of Sciences.
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Biography
Howard's parents—her father, a scriptwriter, and her mother, a musician/composer—moved to Los Angeles in 1906. In 1920 she began attending what was then known as the Southern Branch of the University of California (later renamed UCLA). Her first biology teacher, Pirie Davidson, inspired her to switch her career from journalism to biology, and helped her get a job working for mammalian paleontologist Chester Stock on the La Brea Tar Pits. She completed her bachelor's degree at U.C. Berkeley, taking courses in paleontology. In 1923 she began working at the Los Angeles County Museum of Natural History, doing work on saber-toothed tiger fossils. This work rapidly expanded into the field of avian evolution, where over her 69-year publishing career she described 3 families, 13 genera, 57 species, and 2 subspecies.
Henry Anson and Howard conserved the fossils together after a flood where they fell in love and later married in (d.1984) in 1930.
Significant works
Howard published approximately 150 scientific papers over the course of her career, and rose to become the Chief Curator at the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County for a decade. She was the first one to specialize in bird fossils and her works are still considered to this day.