Eleanor Mary Ord Laurie

Eleanor Mary Ord Laurie Isserlis (14 January 1919 - 17 March 2009)[1] was a British mammalogist.

Early life

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Laurie was born in 1919[1] to parents Elinor Beatrice Ord and Robert Douglas Laurie. Her father was head of the Zoology Department at Aberystwyth University from 1918 until his retirement in 1940.[2]

Education and career

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Laurie was the head of the Mammal Department at the British Museum of Natural History.[1] She graduated from St Hugh's College, Oxford in 1942 with a Master of Science degree. In its 1949–1950 issue, the St Hugh's College Chronicle noted that she was appointed Senior Scientific Officer at the British Museum in its Zoology Department.[3] She became a Fellow of the Linnean Society of London in 1950;[4] she withdrew from the Society in 1958.[5]

Species described

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Laurie described a number of new mammal species, including:

Selected publications

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  • Laurie, E. M.; Hill, J. E. (1954). List of land mammals of New Guinea, Celebes and adjacent islands 1758-1952. Trustees of the British Museum.
  • Laurie, E. M. O. (1946). "The reproduction of the house-mouse (Mus musculus) living in different environments". Proceedings of the Royal Society of London. Series B: Biological Sciences. 133 (872): 248–281. Bibcode:1946RSPSB.133..248L. doi:10.1098/rspb.1946.0012. PMID 20994890.
  • Southern, H. N.; Laurie, E. M. O. (1946). "The House-Mouse (Mus musculus) in Corn Ricks". The Journal of Animal Ecology. 15 (2): 134. doi:10.2307/1554. JSTOR 1554.
  • Laurie, E. M. O. (1946). "The Coypu (Myocastor coypus) in Great Britain". The Journal of Animal Ecology. 15 (1): 22–34. doi:10.2307/1622. JSTOR 1622.

Personal life

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On 29 December 1949,[3] she married Alexander Reginald Isserlis, who would become Principal Private Secretary to the Prime Minister in 1970. Together, they had two daughters.[10]

Honors

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In 2009, Helgen and Helgen named a new species of mouse after Laurie, Pseudohydromys eleanorae, recommending the common name of Laurie's moss mouse.[1]

References

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  1. ^ a b c d Helgen, Kristofer M.; Helgen, Lauren E. (2009). "Chapter 8. Biodiversity and Biogeography of the Moss-mice of New Guinea: A Taxonomic Revision of Pseudohydromys (Muridae: Murinae)". Bulletin of the American Museum of Natural History. 331: 253. doi:10.1206/582-8.1. S2CID 21646409.
  2. ^ Stephenson, T. A. (1953). "Prof. R. D. Laurie". Nature. 171 (4357): 773–774. Bibcode:1953Natur.171..773S. doi:10.1038/171773a0.
  3. ^ a b "St Hugh's College, Oxford - Chronicle 1949-1950".
  4. ^ "PROCEEDINGS OF THE GENERAL MEETING ON 9 March 1950". Proceedings of the Linnean Society of London. 162 (2): 123–124. 1951. doi:10.1111/j.1095-8312.1951.tb00602.x.
  5. ^ "General Secretary's Report". Proceedings of the Linnean Society of London. 169 (1–2): 22. 1958. doi:10.1111/j.1095-8312.1958.tb00806d.x.
  6. ^ Laurie, E. M.; Shaw-Mayer, F. (1952). "Mammals Collected by Mr. Shaw Mayer in New Guinea, 1932-1949". The British Museum (Natural History): 278–279. {{cite journal}}: Cite journal requires |journal= (help)
  7. ^ Laurie, Eleanor M O. (1952). "Mammals collected by Mr. Shaw Mayer in New Guinea, 1932-1949". Bulletin of the British Museum (Natural History). 1: 269–318. doi:10.5962/bhl.part.21634.
  8. ^ Laurie, E. M.; Hill, J. E. (1954). List of land mammals of New Guinea, Celebes and adjacent islands 1758-1952. Trustees of the British Museum. pp. 60–61.
  9. ^ Chiozza, F.; Thong, V.D. (2016). "Miniopterus shortridgei". IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. 2016: e.T136827A22044684. doi:10.2305/IUCN.UK.2016-2.RLTS.T136827A22044684.en.
  10. ^ Who was who: A Companion to Who's Who, Containing the Biographies of Those who Died. Vol. 8. A. & C. Black. 1981. p. 386. ISBN 9780713633368.