Dorothea Bate facts for kids
Quick facts for kids
Dorothea Bate
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| Born | 8 November 1878 Carmarthen, Wales
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| Died | 13 January 1951 (aged 72) Westcliff-on-Sea, Essex, England
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| Education | at home & Natural History Museum, London |
| Occupation | Palaeontologist and archaeozoologist |
| Known for | Discovery and identification of animal fossils |
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| Awards | Wollaston Fund |
| Scientific career | |
| Institutions | Natural History Museum, London |
| Influences | Dorothy Garrod, Percy R. Lowe |
Dorothea Minola Alice Bate (born November 8, 1878 – died January 13, 1951), also known as Dorothy Bate, was a Welsh scientist. She was a palaeontologist, which means she studied fossils. She was also a pioneer in archaeozoology, which is the study of animal remains from archaeological sites.
Dorothea spent her life searching for fossils of animals that had recently become extinct. She wanted to understand how and why some animals evolved into very large (giant) or very small (dwarf) forms. Her work helped us learn a lot about ancient animals.
Contents
Early Life and Education
Dorothea Bate was born in Carmarthen, Wales. Her father was Henry Reginald Bate, a Police Superintendent. Her mother was Elizabeth Fraser Whitehill.
Dorothea had an older sister and a younger brother. She did not go to school much. She once said that her education was "only briefly interrupted by school." This means she learned mostly at home.
A Career in Science
In 1898, when Dorothea was 19, she got a job at the Natural History Museum in London. She started by sorting bird skins. Later, she prepared fossils for study. She was likely the first woman scientist hired by the museum. She worked there for 50 years.
At the museum, she learned about many subjects. These included ornithology (the study of birds), palaeontology (fossils), geology (Earth's structure), and anatomy (body structure). She was paid for each fossil she prepared.
In 1901, Dorothea published her first scientific paper. It was about small Pleistocene mammal bones found in the Wye Valley.
Discoveries in the Mediterranean
The same year, Dorothea traveled to Cyprus. She stayed for 18 months, paying her own way. She searched for bones and found 12 new fossil sites. Among her finds were bones of a small, extinct hippo called Hippopotamus minor.
In 1902, she received a grant from the Royal Society. With this money, she discovered a new species of dwarf elephant in a cave in the Kyrenia hills. She named it Elephas cypriotes. She wrote a paper about it for the Royal Society. While in Cyprus, she also studied living animals. She described the Cyprus Spiny Mouse and a type of Eurasian Wren.
Dorothea later went on expeditions to other Mediterranean islands. These included Crete, Corsica, Sardinia, Malta, and the Balearic Islands. She published many papers on the ancient animals of these islands.
In the Balearic Islands in 1909, she discovered Myotragus balearicus. This was a new species of goat-like animal. In Crete, she found remains of the Cretan dwarf hippopotamus. She also met archaeologists working on the Minoan civilization there.
Dorothea's expeditions were often very challenging. She traveled on foot or by mule. She explored difficult and remote areas. She would wade through water to reach isolated caves. She was always covered in mud and clay. She carried her collecting bag, nets, insect boxes, and hammer. Sometimes, she even used dynamite to get to fossils.
Work in the Middle East
In the late 1920s, Dorothea traveled to British-ruled Palestine. She was invited by Dorothy Garrod, a famous archaeologist. Garrod was in charge of an excavation in Haifa.
In Bethlehem, Dorothea and Elinor Wight Gardner found an extinct elephant species. They also found an early horse and a giant prehistoric tortoise. They discovered proof that early humans in Bethlehem hunted animals.
In the 1930s, Dorothea studied animal bones from the Mount Carmel caves. These caves held many layers of history from the Ice Age. Dorothea was one of the first to study large samples of animal remains from different layers. She believed that changes in the types of animals hunted by early humans showed natural changes in the environment. This made her a pioneer in archaeozoology. Her work helped scientists understand ancient climates.
Dorothea also worked with Professor Dorothy Garrod at the Caves of Nahal Me’arot. Her goal was to understand the natural history of Ice Age animals in the Levant region. She described several new species. She also identified animals not previously known to have lived there during the Ice Age. She showed how animal communities changed over time. She noticed a shift from deer to gazelle as the climate and plants changed.
She was also the first to identify an Ice Age Canis familiaris from a skull found there. Later, more remains of ancient dogs were found. Her important research was published in 1937. It was part of a book called The Stone Age of Mount Carmel volume 1, part 2.
Dorothea also worked with Percy Lowe on fossil ostriches found in China.
Later Life and Legacy
Many archaeologists and anthropologists relied on Dorothea's knowledge. She was an expert at identifying fossil bones. These included famous scientists like Louis Leakey and John Desmond Clark.
During the Second World War, Dorothea moved to the Natural History Museum's branch in Tring. In 1948, just before her 70th birthday, she became the officer-in-charge there.
Dorothea died on January 13, 1951, from a heart attack. Her personal papers were lost in a house fire after her death. On her desk, she had a list of papers she still wanted to write. The last one was titled Swan Song.
In 2005, the Natural History Museum created a special exhibit about Dorothea Bate. It tells stories and facts about her life and discoveries.
Karolyn Shindler wrote a biography about her called Discovering Dorothea: the Life of the Pioneering Fossil-Hunter Dorothea Bate. Shindler described Bate as "witty, clever and courageous."
Honours
- 1940: She received the Wollaston Fund from the Geological Society of London.
- 1940: She was elected a fellow of the Geological Society.
- 2017: A Blue Plaque was placed on her birthplace in Carmarthen. This plaque honors important historical figures.
Portrait
A watercolour painting of Dorothea as a young woman is at the Natural History Museum. Her sister painted it. It shows her in a black dress with white lace and a large pink rose.
See also
In Spanish: Dorothea Bate para niños
