Gaining Ground, Second Edition: The Origin and Evolution of Tetrapods

Acknowledgments

xi Acknowledgments This work essentially represents a summary of my research career in early tetrapod paleontology. Throughout this period, I have worked with, been guided and helped by, learned from, and been supported morally and financially by a large number of people and institutions whom it is now my opportunity to thank. I begin with my late father, Ernest Agnew, who unfortunately did not live to see my election as a Fellow of the Royal Society. He and my husband, Mr. Rob Clack, have both been instrumental in encouraging me on this road, and have helped reduce the rather long odds against my arriving where I am. My mother, Alice, died in 1983, and so was not able to see what she also helped me achieve. It is also a delight to acknowledge the encouragement and understanding of my late mother-in-law, Mrs. Molly Clarke. I belong to the Panchen school of early tetrapod paleontology, and thanks must go largely to Dr. Alec Panchen for having taken me on as a mature research student after several years working in a provincial museum. My boss at that time, Mrs. Anna Meredith, deserves my eternal thanks for having encouraged me to take the plunge and return to academia, as well as providing the opportunity that led to that outcome. I returned to museums after my postgraduate years, although not in the way I expected. When appointed to a post in the University Museum of Zoology, Cambridge (UMZC), in 1981, in a sense I returned to my ancestral home, since Alec was a student of Rex Parrington, whose work in early tetrapod paleontology is the foundation of the collections and research effort of the UMZC. During my subsequent career, several colleagues have been key sources of advice, discussion, intellectual challenge, and stimulation, as well as sources of specimens and general paleontological and social fun: Drs. Mike Coates, Andrew Milner, Angela Milner, and Tim Smithson, all Panchen school graduates; my own research students, but particularly Prof. Per Ahlberg, whose research overlaps in a most satisfactory and fruitful way. In the UMZC, I am indebted to Dr. Ken Joysey, a former director, for crucial help in mounting the first Greenland expedition, and to Prof. Michael Akam, the previous director and now head of the Zoology Department ; and to the former Curator of Vertebrates, Dr Adrian Friday, and the former head of the Department of Zoology, Prof. Malcolm Burrows, for continuing support both for my research and my personal progress. Mr. Ray Symonds, the former collections manager of UMZC, has been a source of practical support; he remained good-humored in even the most A xii Acknowledgments trying of circumstances. Several people have assisted practically with the project over the years, including Ms. Rosie Rush, Dr. Nick Fraser, and Dr. Henning Blom, as a postdoctoral associate. Most recently, my collaborators on an early tetrapod locomotion project have been Dr. John Hutchinson (Royal Veterinary College, London) and Dr. Stephanie Pierce. Ms. Julia Molnar is our scientific illustrator, and she has helped me enormously with the figures for this book, especially the front cover. My expeditions to Greenland could not have even begun had not Rob “mithered” me until I gave in, and nothing would have progressed without the help of Dr. Peter Friend of Cambridge’s Department of Earth Sciences, and the unwitting help of his former student Dr. John Nicholson. The expeditions were supported logistically by the GGU/GEUS (Greenland Geological Survey of Denmark) led by Dr. Neils Henricksen (Oscar) and facilitated by the late Dr. Svend Erick Bendix Almgreen of the Geological Museum Copenhagen (MGUH). I thank both of these for the part they played in our expeditions’ successes. Ms. Sally Neininger (now Dr. Thomas) and Dr. Becky Hitchin were two of my gallant field assistants in 1998. More recent collaboration with MGUH through the good offices of Dr. Minik Rosing, its former director, Dave Harper, Professor of Paleontology, and Dr. Gilles Cuny, Curator of Vertebrate Paleontology, have allowed my team to continue working on the Devonian tetrapods we find so rewarding and fascinating. In the UK, much of my material has been provided by the collector Mr. Stan Wood, and I record here the debt British vertebrate paleontology owes to him. Further abroad, many colleagues have helped me by generously discussing their own research and allowing access to collections, and providing support in more subtle ways. I particularly wish to thank Prof. Eric Lombard and Dr. John Bolt from Chicago, for ongoing collaboration...