The Woman and the Velociraptor

The woman and the velociraptor. In the photograph: Zofia Kielan-Jaworowska (1925 - 2015), one of the world's most distinguished palaeontologists and a key figure of post-war science in Poland. The chief objects of Zofia's scientific work were the trilobites of Central Europe, the dinosaurs of the Gobi Desert, Palaeozoic invertebrates and the primitive mammals of the age of the dinosaurs. She was, moreover, one of the pioneers of palaeontological research in Mongolia and discovered several ancient species. A number of species and genera of extinct animals bear her name, for instance Indobaatar Zofiae, Zofiagale, Zofiabaatar, Kielantherium, Kielantherium. Kielan-Jaworowska was the first woman to head the International Union of Geological Sciences. It was thanks to her labours that velociraptors became so popular: the researcher devoted a number of vivid articles to them, and especially notable was the episode concerning the remains of a velociraptor locked in a combat pose with another predator, discovered by Zofia and picturesquely introduced by her into scientific circulation.