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Agnes Crane

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Agnes Crane
BornJune 1852
Thorney, Cambridgeshire
DiedSeptember 1932(1932-09-00) (aged 80)
Brighton, Sussex
Known forStudies of the Brachiopoda

Agnes Crane (June 1852 – September 1932) was an English paleontologist, who published a number of articles on fossil and recent brachiopods, described a new brachiopod species, and presented her work internationally.[1][2][3][4]

Early life

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Agnes Crane was born in June 1852 in Thorney, near Peterborough, Cambridgeshire.[5] She was the only child of Edward Crane and Jane Turnell. Crane lived in Thorney until 1866, when her father retired. They settled in Brighton in 1867, after travelling around Europe.[6] Crane lived in Brighton for the rest of her life.[7]

Edward Crane was elected a Fellow of the Geological Society of London in 1872, and became involved with the Brighton Museum in the 1870s, first assisting with the geological gallery, and later as a member and then chair of the museum committee.[2][6]

Writings on paleontology

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From the late 1870s, Crane had a deep interest in recent and fossil organisms, and wrote a number of journal articles on fish, cephalopods and brachiopods. She had no formal university training,[2] but corresponded with leading zoologists and paleontologists of the day, such as Albert Günther at the Natural History Museum, London, and presented her work or, had her work presented, to local scientific meetings, including the Brighton and Sussex Natural History Society.[8] In Brighton, Crane was able to work with Scottish paleontologist, and brachiopod specialist, Thomas Davidson. Davidson lived in Brighton for many years, and in the 1870s was chairman of the Brighton museum committee,[9] a role later taken on by Crane's father.[6]

After Davidson died, in 1885, Crane was invited by the Linnean Society to oversee the editing and final production of Davidson's monograph of recent brachiopods.[10] Within the collections left by Davidson, Crane came across some samples of brachiopods that had recently been dredged from shallow waters offshore from Port Stephens, New South Wales by Australian malacologist John Brazier. Davidson had labelled the samples Atretia brazeri, in honour of the collector, but had not completed any formal description of the material. Crane examined and described the samples, and published the first technical description of this new species in a paper in April 1886.[4] Subsequent work has shown that this species is part of a genus of brachiopods, Aulites, that are only found in Australian waters.[11]

In subsequent years, Crane wrote a number of book chapters, essays and technical papers on brachiopod anatomy and evolution.[12][13]

In addition to her writings on paleontology, Crane wrote more widely on topics including sea-level change[14] and ancient Mexican heraldry; she also wrote a number of book reviews for scientific journals and contributed to discussions of papers on other topics.[15]

Travel

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Crane was well travelled and, among other things, published a serialised account of a trip to the United States with her father in 1881 in The Leisure Hour, with notes on her visits to a number of museums and collections.[16] In August 1893, Crane was one of twelve women who presented papers at the Women's Auxiliary Branch of the World's Congress in Chicago.[17][3][18]

Crane died in September 1932, in Brighton.[7] Her collections of brachiopods are now held by the Booth Museum of Natural History.[19]

Published works

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Paleontology and natural history

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  • Crane A. (1877) On Certain Genera of Living Fishes and their Fossil Affinities. Geological Magazine, 4, 209–219.[20]
  • Crane A. (1878) The General History of the Cephalopoda, Recent and Fossil. Geological Magazine, 5, 487–499.[21]
  • Crane, A. (1881) Article on the Molluscoida (Brachiopoda and Bryozoa). Cassell's Nat. Hist. vol. v. parts 56–57, 258–280.
  • Crane, A. (1886) On a Brachiopod of the genus Atretia (A. Brazieri, Dav. MS.). Proceedings of the Zoological Society, London, p. 181.
  • Crane, A. (1886–1888) Edition of Thomas Davidson's Posthumous Monograph of the Recent Brachiopoda. Transactions of the Linnæan Society, London, vol. iv. Zool. Three Parts.
  • Crane A. (1893) New Classifications of the Brachiopoda. Geological Magazine, 10, 318–323.[22]
  • Crane A. (1895) The Evolution of the Brachiopoda. Geological Magazine, 2, 65–75.[3]
  • Crane A. (1895) The Evolution of the Brachiopoda. Geological Magazine, 2, 103–116.[23]

Other topics

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  • Crane, Agnes (1892) Ancient Mexican Heraldry, Science, 20, No. 503, 174–176.[24]
  • Crane, Agnes (1893) Coyote or Bear?, Science, 22, No. 552, pp. 124–125.[15]
  • Crane, Agnes (1895) The Submergence of Western Europe Prior to the Neolithic Period, Science, New Series, 2, No. 27, 2–4.[14]

References

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  1. ^ Ogilvie, Marilyn Bailey; Harvey, Joy Dorothy (1 January 2000). The Biographical Dictionary of Women in Science: A-K. Taylor & Francis. p. 300. ISBN 9780415920407.
  2. ^ a b c Mary R. S. Creese; Creese, Thomas M. (1994). "British Women Who Contributed to Research in the Geological Sciences in the Nineteenth Century". The British Journal for the History of Science. 27 (1): 31–32. JSTOR 4027579 – via JSTOR.
  3. ^ a b c Crane, Agnes (19 February 1895). "III.—The Evolution of the Brachiopoda". Geological Magazine. 2 (2): 65–75. Bibcode:1895GeoM....2...65C. doi:10.1017/S0016756800005811 – via Cambridge University Press.
  4. ^ a b Crane, Agnes (1886). "On a Brachiopod of the Genus Atretia, named in MS. by the late Dr. T. Davidson". Proceedings of the Scientific Meetings of the Zoological Society. 1886: 181–184 – via Internet Archive.
  5. ^ "Index entry, Agnes Crane". FreeBMD. ONS. Retrieved 19 August 2024.
  6. ^ a b c "Edward Crane, F.G.S." Geological Magazine. 8 (6): 286–287. 19 June 1901. Bibcode:1901GeoM....8R.286.. doi:10.1017/S0016756800178719 – via Cambridge University Press.
  7. ^ a b "Index entry, Agnes Crane". FreeBMD. ONS. Retrieved 19 August 2024.
  8. ^ "Ordinary Meeting - Miss Agnes Crane On certain genera of living fish and their fossil genera". Annual Report and Abstract of Proceedings of the Brighton and Sussex Natural History Society: 44-58. 1877 – via googlebooks.
  9. ^ "Obituary. Thomas Davidson, LL.D., F.R.S., F.G.S., F.L.S., &c". Geological Magazine. 2: 528. 1885. doi:10.1017/S0016756800199480.
  10. ^ "A monograph of recent Brachiopoda". HathiTrust.
  11. ^ "Aulites Richardson, 1987". www.gbif.org.
  12. ^ "Popular Natural History 1". Nature. 25 (631): 107–109. 1 December 1881. Bibcode:1881Natur..25..107.. doi:10.1038/025107a0 – via www.nature.com.
  13. ^ Crane, Agnes (1893). "The Generic Evolution of the Palæozoic Brachiopoda". Science. 21 (523): 72–74. Bibcode:1893Sci....21...72C. doi:10.1126/science.ns-21.523.72. JSTOR 1766159. PMID 17784425 – via JSTOR.
  14. ^ a b Crane, Agnes (1895). "The Submergence of Western Europe Prior to the Neolithic Period". Science. 2 (27): 2–4. Bibcode:1895Sci.....2....2C. doi:10.1126/science.2.27.2. JSTOR 1623825. PMID 17729578 – via JSTOR.
  15. ^ a b Crane, Agnes (1893). "Coyote or Bear?". Science. 22 (552): 124–125. doi:10.1126/science.ns-22.552.124-a. JSTOR 1765828. PMID 17746218 – via JSTOR.
  16. ^ Crane, Agnes (1882). "Notes on the eastern cities and museums of the United States. In four parts, July–October". The Leisure Hour. 32 – via HathiTrust.
  17. ^ "Notes". Nature. 48 (1231): 107–111. 1 June 1893. Bibcode:1893Natur..48..107.. doi:10.1038/048107a0 – via www.nature.com.
  18. ^ "Editorial". The Journal of Geology. 1 (6): 631. 20 September 1893. Bibcode:1893JG......1..620.. doi:10.1086/606216 – via CrossRef.
  19. ^ Cooper, John (2020). "A Catalogue of the Type, Figured and Cited specimens in the geological collections of the Booth Museum of Natural History, Brighton".
  20. ^ Crane, Agnes (19 May 1877). "III.—On Certain Genera of Living Fishes and their Fossil Affinities". Geological Magazine. 4 (5): 209–219. Bibcode:1877GeoM....4..209C. doi:10.1017/S0016756800149143 – via Cambridge University Press.
  21. ^ Crane, Agnes (19 November 1878). "II.—The General History of the Cephalopoda, Recent and Fossil". Geological Magazine. 5 (11): 487–499. Bibcode:1878GeoM....5..487C. doi:10.1017/S0016756800151118 – via Cambridge University Press.
  22. ^ Crane, Agnes (19 July 1893). "VI.—New Classifications of the Brachiopoda". Geological Magazine. 10 (7): 318–323. Bibcode:1893GeoM...10..318C. doi:10.1017/S0016756800163824 – via Cambridge University Press.
  23. ^ Crane, Agnes (19 March 1895). "II.—The Evolution of the Brachiopoda". Geological Magazine. 2 (3): 103–116. Bibcode:1895GeoM....2..103C. doi:10.1017/S0016756800005951 – via Cambridge University Press.
  24. ^ Crane, Agnes (1892). "Ancient Mexican Heraldry". Science. 20 (503): 174–176. doi:10.1126/science.ns-20.503.174. JSTOR 1765772. PMID 17752520 – via JSTOR.
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