Longstaff, Mary Jane (c. 1855–1935)

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Longstaff, Mary Jane (c. 1855–1935)

English paleontologist. Name variations: Mary Jane Donald. Born Mary Jane Donald, c. 1855 in Carlisle, Cumbria, England; died Jan 19, 1935; m. George Blundell Longstaff (entomologist), 1906 (died 1921).

An amateur paleontologist and an expert on Paleozoic Gastropoda, studied at the Carlisle School of Art; researched mollusks and fossil shells; bred large South African snails called Cochlitoma; traveled throughout Britain and abroad to study specimens (1885–1933); made a fellow of Geographical Society of London fellow (1919); was the 2nd woman awarded the Geological Society of London's Murchison Fund (1898).

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