Eleanor Mary Ord Laurie

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

Early life

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

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

Laurie described a number of new mammal species, including:

• Dactylopsila tatei Laurie, 1952 ^[6]
• Microperoryctes papuensis (Laurie, 1952) ^[7]
• Hipposideros inexpectatus Laurie & Hill, 1954 ^[8]
• Miniopterus shortridgei Laurie & Hill, 1956 ^[9]

Selected publications

• 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

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

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

1. 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. "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   978-0-7136-3336-8.