Melanie
Well-known member
I would like to remember a scientist who almost fell into oblivion because he died at the age of just 37 due to complications after a cancer surgery. Thankfully, his mentor and colleague Rod Wells has collected enough material to pay tribute to his work. Indeed, Williams pioneered Genyornis research, having carried out the first ultrastructural analysis on a Genyornis eggshell in 1981. He has also carried out important drilling work on the salt crust of Lake Eyre. In 2004, Gavin Prideaux named the fossil kangaroo species Procoptodon williamsi after Dom Williams. (Dom was his nickname).
Some sources:
Some sources:
- Roderick T. Wells: Obituary. In: Wells, R.T., Callen, R.A. (ed): The Lake Eyre Basin: Cainozoic Sediments, Fossil Vertebrates and Plants, Landforms, Silcretes, and Climatic Implications. Australasian Sedimentologists Group Field Guide Series No. 4. Geological Society of Australia, Sydney, 1986, p 3
- Mike A. Smith: Genyornis: last of the Dromornithids. In: Libby Robin, Robert Heinsohn & Leo Joseph (ed.): Boom and Bust: Bird Stories for a Dry Country. CSIRO Publishing, Collingwood, Victoria 2009, ISBN 978-0-643-09709-4, p 147–183.
- Obituary - Dominic (Dom) Williams - Obituaries Australia
- Richard H. Tedford: American Contribution to Vertebrate Paleontology. In: Vertebrate palaeontology of Australasia. Pioneer Design Studio in cooperation with the Monash University Publications Committee, Lilydale, Vic 1991, ISBN 978-0-909674-36-6, p 80.
- Gavin J. Prideaux: Systematics and evolution of the sthenurine kangaroos. In S. W. Awramik, A. Barnosky, J. A. Doyle, M. L. Droser, P. M. Sadler (ed.), UC Publications in Geological Sciences, University of California Press 146, 2004, pages 1–623
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