Marjorie Elizabeth Jane Chandler

Marjorie Chandler (1897–1983), was a British paleobotanist who made her own reputation as a scientist after a long partnership with Eleanor Mary Reid, as a research assistant.

Life

Marjorie Elizabeth Jane Chandler was born in Leamington Spa to jeweller, Frederick Augustus and Alice Sarah (born Roberts) Chandler. Chandler obtained a scholarship to Newnham College in 1915 after attending Leamington High School. At Cambridge University she obtained a first class degree in the natural sciences in 1919. The following year she went to work as the research assistant of Eleanor Mary Reid. Reid was one of four women who became fellows of the Geological Society that year^[1] Reid's base was in Milford-on-Sea from where she worked^[2] and where they established a lifelong scientific partnership.

Chandler and Reid researched prehistoric plants using the collections of the British Museum. After six years they published Bembridge Flora which was an extensive description of Cainozoic Plants and particularly those growing historically on the Isle of Wight. Their second volume was published by the two companions in 1933 and this looked at the fossilised plants of the clay of London. Reid's attic was their laboratory and Chandler endured the lab's frozen winter's and hot summers. Reid described the changing climatic conditions in the Tertiary period using the remains of the changing flora seen in the different aged minerals. This gave new evidence of the evolutionary changes that takes place within those plants. Reid and Chandler's studies showed that the land now known as London had at one time been part of a tropical forest.^[2] Reid was recognised for this work when she was awarded the Lyell Medal in 1936 by the Geological Society.^[3]

From 1933 Chandler took the lead focussing on Tertiary floras although Reid continued to support her and to write the occasional short paper. Chandler's finances were dependent on a small grant from the British Museum that were awarded each year. Chandler obtained her master's degree in 1948. Chandler was recognised internationally as she extended the work she and Reid had done as partners to other aspects of the Eocene and Oligocene periods. Chandler's own research described the historic plants of Dorset and Bournemouth and she created a supplement to the London Flora which ran to hundreds of pages. A noted publication of hers was The Lower Tertiary Floras of Southern England which she published in 1961.^[4]

Chandler eventually became Reid's nurse until she died in 1953 in Milford-on-Sea.^[5] Chandler herself retired and died in Swindon in 1983.^[2]

The standard author abbreviation M.Chandler is used to indicate this person as the author when citing a botanical name.^[6]

Template:Publications in Paleobotany

The Lower Tertiary floras of southern England

A work published in January 1961 cataloguing and describing several fossilized vegetations from different stratigraphic groups located in southern England. Many of the seeds described in the text have been found in the Thanet formation located in Herne Bay, Kent. Other floras depicted in the publication vary in location, but prominent areas include Sussex, Middlesex, Surrey, and Warden Point on the Isle of Sheppey as well as other areas of Kent. The atlas pictures many fossilized plant remains, mostly seeds. Less commonly, preserved fruits are also pictured. Each specimen is shown from many different angles, showing varying degrees of imperfections and decay.

The London Clay Flora By Eleanor Mary Reid & Marjorie Elizabeth Jane Chandler

One of the key publications regarding the London Clay Flora which are located at the shores at Sheppey. This publication functions as the second part of the Catalogue of Cainozoic Plants in the Department of Geology at the British Museum of Natural History. Before the publication of this work the London Clay Flora hadn’t been the subject of a published work since Bowerbank’s work a century earlier. Compared to Bowerbank’s book, Reid and Chandler’s publication focuses less on the general description of the fossil fruits and seeds at the shores and more on the conditions that allowed the fossils to occur. Although there is a descriptive section of the publication where Reid and Chandler engage in systematic descriptions of thallophyta, charophyra, cymnospermae, monocotyledones, and dicotyledone, the main importance of this publication lies in the conclusion the authors present regarding flora, the climate of the London Clay flora, and relations between fossils and floras.

The Bembridge Beds

The beds which yielded the rich flora to be described occur on the north-west coast of the Isle of Wight, in Gurnard Bay and Thorness Bay, about two miles to the south-west of Cowes. With few exceptions, all the plants were obtained from these localities. The exposure shows a variable series of clays and marls rich in selenite. These can be seen in the cliff when the section is not obscured by vegetation and landslides, and on the foreshore when the tide is low. At full tide, most of the exposure is inaccessible, not be examined in the cliff-face after a spell of wet weather. The clays and marls, by oxidation and weathering, give rise to red clay-ironstone nodues; and various stages in the consolidation of these may be observed.

LXIV. Note on some abnormally large spores formerly attributed to Isoetes

At several Tertiary/Quaternary several large spores began to appear. The origin of these spores was unknown as they were a lot larger than any know Isoetes. Studies done by Dr. R. Potonie suggested these spores have derived from older deposits. These spores were compared with various Carboniferous types. Evidence also suggests they belong to the floras with which they are associated with. Due to corrosion some of the features of the spores may not remain the same.

References