Maria wins International Award for Palaeontological Investigation 2017!

BEES palaeontologist Dr Maria McNamara has been awarded the Paleonturology Award 2017 in recognition of her 2016 paper ‘Fossilization of melanosomes via sulfurization’ published in the journal Palaeontology. The paper was co-authored by Drs Bart van Dongen and Nick Lockyer (University of Manchester), Dr Ian Bull (University of Bristol) and Dr Paddy Orr (University College Dublin).

The award is made by the Fundacion Conjunto Palaeontologico de Teruel – Dinopolis each year. It recognizes outstanding palaeontological research and is given to what is considered the best paper in any field of palaeontology (of those selected for consideration) in the preceding year. The award comes with a cash prize of €4,500.

The award also aims to promote this research to schoolchildren, and the recipient of the award is expected to prepare a popular version of the winning article for dissemination amongst secondary school students.

Maria (centre) and some of her team at UCC