Alexandra Szalay is an Australian anthropologist and mammalogist, who specialises in the study of Papua New Guinea. The Gebe cuscus (Phalanger alexandrae) is named after her.
Alexandra Szalay | |
|---|---|
| Citizenship | Australia |
| Alma mater | University of Sydney |
| Occupation(s) | Mammologist; Anthropologist |
| Employer | Australian Museum |
Career
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Szalay has studied the cultural significance of tree kangaroos to New Guinean people, particularly in body adornment and accessories.[1] She has worked at the Australian Museum, in the anthropology and the mammalogy departments.[2][3][4] She undertook postgraduate study at the University of Sydney, where her thesis was entitled: Maokop : the montane cultures of central Irian Jaya : environment, society, and history in highland West New Guinea.[5] As part of her research she catalogued the archives held at the South Australia Museum of the missionaries Norman and Sheila Draper.[6] Szalay has written about religion in West Papua,[7] as well as the West Papuan independence movement.[8][9][10]
Szalay is married to the climate campaigner and explorer Tim Flannery.[11] They met when she joined his 1994 expedition to New Caledonia.[2] During the trip they collected Pleistocene fossil fauna from several places, including Kelangurr Cave.[12]
Szalay's father was Hungarian and a pilot in the Second World War.[13]
Eponym
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Whilst a member of the 1994 expedition with Tim Flannery and Indonesian scientist Boeadi, a new species of cuscus was described for the first time and named after Szalay.[14] The cuscus is only found in the island of Gebe in the North Moluccas.[15] The Gebe cuscus (Phalanger alexandrae) lives between sea level and 300m and is endemic to the island in inhabits.[16]
References
edit- ^ Jackson, Stephen (Stephen M.) (2010). Kangaroo : portrait of an extraordinary marsupial. Vernes, Karl. Crows Nest, N.S.W.: Allen & Unwin. p. 45. ISBN 978-1-74175-903-7. OCLC 652432066.
- ^ a b Flannery, Tim F. (2011). Among the Islands. New York: Atlantic Monthly Press. p. 214. ISBN 978-1-921961-60-1. OCLC 823378060.
- ^ "Alex Szalay eyes the skull of the Bulmer's Fruit bat at the..." Getty Images. Retrieved 17 May 2020.
- ^ Australian Mammalogy: Journal of the Australian Mammal Society, Volumes 16-20.
- ^ Szalay, Alexandra (1999). Maokop : the montane cultures of central Irian Jaya : environment, society, and history in highland West New Guinea (PhD thesis).
- ^ "FIGHTING AT PYRAMID, GRAND VALLEY OF THE BALIEM RIVER, WEST NEW GUINEA". cps.ruhosting.nl. Retrieved 16 May 2020.
- ^ Taylor, Bron Raymond; Kaplan, Jeffrey; Hobgood-Oster, Laura; Ivakhiv, Adrian J.; York, Michael (2008). The Encyclopedia of Religion and Nature. New York: Continuum. p. 672. ISBN 978-0-19-975467-0. OCLC 634853866.
- ^ Broek, Theo Van den; Szalay, Alexandra (1 June 2001). "Raising the Morning Star: Six months in the developing independence movement in West Papua". The Journal of Pacific History. 36 (1): 77–92. doi:10.1080/00223340123100. ISSN 0022-3344. S2CID 159676349.
- ^ Kusumaryati, Veronika. "THE GREAT COLONIAL ROADS." Landscape Architecture Frontiers, vol. 5, no. 2, 2017, p. 137+. Gale Academic OneFile, Accessed 17 May 2020
- ^ Ploeg, Anton (2007). "Revitalisation Movements among Me, Damal and Western Dani, Central Highlands, Papua, Indonesia". Zeitschrift für Ethnologie. 132 (2): 263–286. ISSN 0044-2666. JSTOR 25843102.
- ^ "Tim Flannery, eco-campaigner". www.ft.com. Retrieved 16 May 2020.
- ^ Flannery, T (1999). "The Pleistocene mammal fauna of Kelangurr Cave, central montane Irian Jaya, Indonesia" (PDF). Records of the Western Australian Museum Supplement. 57: 343.
- ^ "A melancholic discussion with friend-comrade". The Sydney Morning Herald. 2 June 2019. Retrieved 17 May 2020.
- ^ Shuker, Karl. (2002). The new zoo : new and rediscovered animals of the twentieth century. Shuker, Karl. (New ed.). Thirsk: House of Stratus. p. 101. ISBN 1-84232-561-2. OCLC 59531459.
- ^ Beolens, Bo. (2009). The eponym dictionary of mammals. Watkins, Michael, 1940-, Grayson, Michael. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press. p. 7. ISBN 978-0-8018-9533-3. OCLC 593239356.
- ^ "IUCN Red List of Threatened Species: Gebe Cuscus". IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. 15 June 2015. Retrieved 16 May 2020.