Smith, Meredith Joan (1943 - 1998)

Summary

Meredith Smith (née Clark) was a mammalogist, the early focus of her research being on red kangaroos. For three years from 1964 she was an Experimental Officer with the CSIRO Division of Wildlife Research in Canberra, where she this research. She returned to Adelaide in 1967 and completed her PhD on the embryology of diprotodont marsupials the following year. During the next few years she studied sugar gliders and Sminthopsis crassicaudata (Fat-tailed dunnart), as well as parrots, crustaceans and skinks. She also became involved in the investigation of fossil deposits at Victoria Cave, Naracoorte, South Australia, becoming expert in identifying small fossil vertebrates. From these deposits she described Wonambi naracoortensis, a giant python, the first extinct snake to be found in Australia. In 1981 Smith was appointed Laboratory scientific officer (part-time) to work on a captive colony of sugar gliders and their reproductive cycle at the Institute of Medical and Veterinary Science of the South Australian Department of Agriculture. She transferred to the South Australian Museum when the Institute became part of the Museum as the Evolutionary Biology Unit. Here she continued to work with live animals until the Unit changed focus and ceased this work. She was also involved in the identification of mammal and fossil collections, and managed the histology laboratory. At the time of her death Smith was a Senior Scientist.

Details

Chronology

1963 - 1998

Career position - Member, Australian Mammal Society

1964

Education - BSc (hons), University of Adelaide

1964

Award - CSIRO Junior Postgraduate Scholarship

January 1964 - December 1966

Career position - Experimental Officer, CSIRO Division of Wildlife Research, Canberra

1966

Award - CSIRO Senior Postgraduate Scholarship

1968

Education - PhD, University of Adelaide

1968

Award - Bolliger Award, Australian Mammal Society

1968 - 1969

Career position - Treasurer, Australian Mammal Society

1974

Career event - Appointed part time demonstrator in Zoology, University of Adelaide

1975 - 1976

Career position - Editor, Australian Mammal Society

May 1981 - 1982

Career position - Laboratory Scientific Officer, Institute of Medical and Veterinary Science, South Australian Department of Agriculture

1983 - 1998

Career position - Laboratory Scientific Officer (later Senior Scientist), Evolutionary Biology Unit, South Australian Museum

Related entries

Published resources

Books

• Aslin, Heather J. and Smith, Meredith J.; illustrations by Rosemary Woodford Ganf, Marsupials of Australia volume 2: carnivorous marsupials and bandicoots (Sydney: Lansdowne Editions, 1987), 202 pp. Details
• Smith, Meredith J.; illustrations by Rosemary Woodford Ganf, Marsupials of Australia, vol. 1: possums, the koala and wombats (Melbourne: Lansdowne Editions, 1980), 202 pp. Details

Journal Articles

• Barker, Shelley, 'Obituary: Meredith Joan Smith (nee Clark)', Australian mammalogy, 21 (2) (2000), 269-74. https://doi.org/10.1071/AM99269. Details
• Clark, M. J., 'Pregnancy in the lactating pygmy possum, Cercartetus concinnus', Australian journal of zoology, 15 (4) (1967), 673-83, https://doi.org/10.1071/ZO9670673. Details
• Hope, J. H., Lampert, R. J., Edmondson, E., Smith, M. J. and Van Tets, G. F., 'Late Pleistocene faunal remains from Seton rock shelter, Kangaroo Island, South Australia', Journal of biogeography, 4 (4) (1977), 363-85. Details
• Medlin, Graham C., 'Obituary: Meredith Joan Smith 10 February 1943 - 18 July 1998', Records of the South Australian Museum, 31 (1998), 119-25. Details
• Sharman, G .B. and Clark, Meredith J., 'The inhibition of ovulation by the corpus luteum in the red kangaroo, Megaleia rufa', Journal of reproduction and fertility, 14 (1) (1967), 129-37. https://doi.org/10.1530/jrf.0.0140129. Details
• Smith, Meredith J., 'Small fossil vertebrates from Victoria Cave, Naracoorte, South Australia I. Potoroinae (Macropodidae), Petauridae and Burramyidae (Marsupialia)', Transactions of the Royal Society of South Australia, 95 (1971), 185-98. Details
• Smith, Meredith J., 'Small fossil vertebrates from Victoria Cave, Naracoorte, South Australia II. Peramelidae, Thylacinidae and Dasyuridae (Marsupialia)', Transactions of the Royal Society of South Australia, 96 (3) (1972), 125-37. Details
• Smith, Meredith J., 'The vertebrae of four Australian elapid snakes', Transactions of the Royal Society of South Australia, 99 (2) (1975), 71-84. Details
• Smith, Meredith J., 'Small fossil vertebrates from Victoria Cave, Naracoorte, South Australia IV: reptiles', Transactions of the Royal Society of South Australia, 100 (1) (1976), 39-51. Details
• Smith, Meredith J., 'Establishment of a captive colony of Bettongia tropica (Marsupialia: Potoroidae) by cross-fostering; and observations on reproduction', Journal of zoology, 244 (1998), 43-50. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1469-7998.1998.tb00005.x. Details
• Smyth, Michael and Smith, Meredith J., ' Aspects of the natural history of three Australian skinks, Morethia boulengeri, Menetia greyii and Lerista bougainvillei', Journal of herpetology, 8 (1974), 329-35, https://doi.org/10.2307/1562902. Details
• Van Tets, G. F. and Smith, Meredith J., 'Small fossil vertebrates from Victoria Cave, Naracoorte, South Australia III: birds (Aves)', Transactions of the Royal Society of South Australia, 98 (4) (1974), 225-8. Details
• Williams, W. D. and Smith, M. J., 'A taxonomic revision of Australian species of Paratya (Crustacea: Atyidae)', Australian journal of marine and freshwater research, 30 (1979), 815-32. https://doi.org/10.1071/MF9790815. Details

Theses

• Smith, Meredith J., 'A study of the embryonic quiescence in diprotodont marsupials', PhD thesis, University of Adelaide, 1968, 148 pp, https://digital.library.adelaide.edu.au/items/3ecf2929-3e43-491d-98b5-0fc7511f0bb8. Details