AASP Primary Records Program Jane Gray

AASP Newsletter 31(3): p. 6-7, 1996.

Jane Gray
compiled by Mark Turner and other University of Oregon Scientists

Professor Jane Gray, Department of Biology, University of Oregon, Eugene, died January 9, 2000 of cancer. She was born in Nebraska on April 19, 1929 to Muriel Barrett Gray and Col. Ernest Gray, a West Point Graduate. Jane Gray received her B.S. degree from Radcliffe College in 1951 and her Ph.D. from the University of California, Berkeley in 1958. Her dissertation dealt with fossil pollen and spores of the Miocene in eastern Oregon. She served as an Instructor in the Department of Geolgy, University of Texas, Austin, for several years until marrying a fellow professor in the Biology Department, which automatically lead to her dismissal owing to nepotism rules in force at the time. Following this she held a position in the Desert Research Institute, University of Arizona, Tucson for several years, where she continued her work on Tertiary pollen and spores. She then moved to the Museum of Natural History, University of Oregon, Eugene. Subsequently she joined the Department of Biology at the University of Oregon where she served until her death. She taught both undergraduate students and graduate students in biology, geology, geography, and anthropology.

Her research career, supported in large part by the National Science Foundation and the Whitehall Foundation, included a number of outstanding discoveries. Her work on the early evolution of land plants showed that higher land plants first appeared in the Middle Ordovician 40 million years earlier than had been previously thought. This discovery, which faced great opposition, is widely accepted today and used in many textbooks. Her masterful book-length monograph on norimarine paleoecology is widely used as a synthesis of what was known in this area up through 1988,

At the time of her death she was investigating the nature of atmospheric carbon dioxide present since the Cambrian. Her compilation and correlation of a massive amount of botanical and geological data will substantially revise previous estimates. This work will be completed by her colleagues. She was also working on a groundbreaking amount of evidence for a widespread Precambrian nonmarine biota, chiefly at the bacterial level.

She taught and mentored many students who found her work and ideas highly original. Her enthusiasm encouraged many to forge ahead in their respective areas. Her death deprives the scientific community of a highly original and innovative worker who undoubtably would have provided even more significant contributions had time permitted. She will be sorely missed by many colleagues, students, and friends.

Dr. Gray was devoted to animal rights and welfare. Memorial contributions may be made to Greenhill Humane Society htt~://www.green-hill.orq/. There will be no memorial service at her request.

SELECTED BIBLIOGRAPHY OF JANE GRAY
compiled by Owen Davis

Batten, D.J., Gray, J., and Harland, R., 1999. Palaeoenvironmental significance of a monospecific assemblage of dirroflagellate cysts from the Miocene Clarkia beds, Idaho, USA. Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology. 153:161-177

Boucot A.J., Gray, J., and Hoskins, D. M. 1994. New hughmilleriid (Eurypterida) occurrence from the Tuscarora Formation, central Pennsylvania, and its environmental interpretation. Bulletin New York State Museum 481: 21-23.

Gray. J.. 1993. Major Paleozoic land plant evolutionary bio events. Pal aeog eog rap h y, Pal a eoc Ii m ato logy, Palaeoecology. 104: 153-169.

Gray, J., and Shear, W., 1992. Early life on land. American Scientist. 80: 444-456

Gray, J., 1991. Tetrahedraletes, Nodospora, and the "cross' tetrad, an accretion of myth. Pages 49 87 In: Pollen and spores, patterns of diversification. Blackmore, S. and Barnes, Susan H. (editors) Systematics Association Special Volume. 44.

Babcock L.E., Gray, J., Boucot, A. J., Himes, G.T., and Siegele, P.K. 1990. First Silurian conulariids from Paraguay. Journal of Paleontology. 64: 897-902.

Gray. J. 1988. Aspects of freshwater paleoecology and biogeography. Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology. 62.(no 1-4). 678 p.

Boucot A.J., and Gray. J.. 1987. The Tethyan concept during the Paleozoic. Pages 31-47. In: McKenzie, Kenneth G. (editor) Shallow Tethys 2., proceedings of the International Symposium on Shallow Tethys 2, Wagga Wagga, 15-17 September 1986.

Boucot A.J., Gray, J., and Van Houten, F.B. 1986. Oolitic ironstones and contrasting Ordovician and Jurassic paleogeography, discussion and reply. Geology (Boulder). 14: 634-635.

Boucot A.J., Eldredge, N.., Gray, J., Pojeta, J.Jr., and Theron, J.N. 1986. Devonian invertebrates from the Bokkeveld Group below the Karoo succession near Sutherland. Annals of the Geological Survey, Republic of South Africa 20:119-128.

Gray, J., Colbath, G. K., de Faria, A., Boucot, A.J., Bohr, D. M. 1985. Silurian age fossils from the Paleozoic Parana Basin, southern Brazil. Geology (Boulder) 13: 521-525.

Gray, J.. 1985. The microfossil record of early land plants, advances in understanding of early terrestrialization, In: Evolution and environment in the Late Silurian and Early Devonian, Chaloner, W. G. and Lawson, J. D. (editors). Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London, Series B: Biological Sciences. 309: 167-195

Sherwood, P., Martha, A., and Gray, J., 1985. Silurian fungal remains, probable records of the class Ascomycetes Lethaia. 18: 1-20

Gray, J., 1985. Interpretation of co occurring megafossils and pollen, a comparative study with Clarkia as an example. Pages 185 244. In: Smiley, Charles J (editor) Late Cenozoic history of the Pacific Northwest, interdisciplinary studies on the Clarkia fossil beds of northern Idaho.

Gray, J., 1985. Ralph Works Chaney. Biographical Memoirs 55, Pages 135-161. National Academy of Sciences.

Gray, J., Beeunas, Mark A., and Knauth, L. Paul. 1985. Preserved stable isotopic signature of subaerial diagenesis in the 1.2 b.y. Mescal Limestone, central Arizona, implications for the timing and development of a terrestrial plant cover, discussion and reply. Geological Society of America Bulletin. 96: 1594-1595.

Gray. J., 1984. Ordovician Silurian land plants, the interdependence of ecology and evolution. In: Autecology of Silurian organisms. Bassett Michael G., and Lawson J D (editors). Special Papers in Palaeontology. 32.

Strother, P.K. Traverse, A., Gray, J., Massa, D., and Boucot, A.J. 1983. Caradocian land plant microfossils from Libya, discussion and reply. Geology (Boulder). 11:316-318.

Boucot A.J., and Gray, J., 1983. A Paleozoic Pangaea. Science. 222: 571-581.

Boucot A.J., Gray. J., Fang Run shen, Yang Xue chang, Li Zai ping, and Zhang Ning, 1982. Devonian calcrete from China, its significance as the first Devonian calcrete from Asia. Canadian Journal of Earth Sciences. 19: 1532-1534.

Gray, J., Massa, D., and Boucot, A.J., 1982. Caradocian land plant microfossils from Libya. Geology (Boulder) 10: 197-201.

Boucot, A.J., and Gray, J., 1982. Paleozoic data of climatological significance and their use for interpreting Silurian Devonian climate. In: Climate in Earth history. Pages 189 198. NatI. Acad. Press.

Boucot, A.J., and Gray. J.,1980. A Cambro Permian Pangaeic model consistent with lithofacies and biogeographic data. Pages 389-419, In: The continental crust and its mineral deposits. Strangway, D.W. (editor) Special Paper Geological Association of Canada. 20,

Gray, J., and Boucot, A.J., 1980. Microfossils and evidence of land plant evolution. Lethaia. 13: 174.

Boucot A.J., and Gray, J., 1979. Epilogue. Pages 465 482. In: Historical biogeography, plate tectonics, and the changing environment. Jane Gray and Boucot, Arthur J. (editors). Proceedings of the Annual Biology Colloquium and Selected Papers. 37,

Smiley, C.J., Gray, J., and Huggins, L.M., 1975~ Preservation of Miocene fossils in unoxidized lake deposits, Clarkia, Idaho, with a section on fossil Insecta by W. F. Barr and J. M. Gillespie. Journal of Paleontology. 49' 833-844.

Gray, J., and BoucotA.J. 1975. Color changes in pollen and spores, a review. Geological Society of America Bulletin, 86' 1019- 1033,

Gray, J., Laufeld, S., and Boucot, A.J. 1974 Silurian Trilete Spores and Spore Tetrads from Gotland, Their Implications for Land Plant Evolution. Science. 185: 260-263.

Gray, J., and Axelrod, D. I. 1974. Memorial to Ralph Works Chaney, 1890 - 1971. Memorials Geological Society of America, 3, Pages 60 68.

Gray, J., Boucot A.J. 1971. Early Silurian spore tetrads from New York, earliest New World evidence for vascular plants9. Science 173: 918-921.

Gray, J., Kittleman, L. R. 1967. Geochronometry of the Columbia River basalt and associated floras of eastern Washington and western Idaho. American Journal of Science, 265: 257-291.

Gray. J., 1965. Palynological techniques. Pages 530-587. IN. Kummel, B. and Raup, D. (editors) Handbook of paleontological techniques. W.H. Freeman Co., San Francisco.

Gray, J., Sohma, K., 1964. Fossil Pachysandra from Western America with a comparative study of pollen in Pachysandra and Sarcococca. American Journal of Science 262: 1159-1197

Gray. J., 1964. Northwest American Tertiary palynology, the emerging picture. Pages 21-30. In: Ancient Pacific floras The pollen story. Honolulu, Univ. of Hawaii Press.

Martin, P.S. and Gray, J., 1962. Pollen analysis and the Cenozoic. Science. 137: 103-111.

Gray, J., 1961. The emerging pollen picture in the American Northwest. Proceedings of the Pacific Science Congress.

Gray, J., 1961. Early Pleistocene paleoclimatic record from Sorioran Desert, Arizona. Science. 133: 38-39.

Smiley, C.J., and Gray, J., 1960. Cretaceous amber from the Arctic Coastal Plain of Alaska. Langeriheim Ralph Louis Jr., Geological Society of America Bulletin. 71: 1345-1356.

Gray, J.,1960. Micropaleobotanical research on the late Tertiary sediments of Arizona. Arizona Geological Society Digest. 3: 145-149.

Gray, J., 1960. Fossil chlorophycean algae from the Miocene of Oregon. Journal of Paleontology, 34: 453-463.

Gray, J., 1960. Temperate pollen genera in the Eocene (Claiborne) flora, Alabama. Science. 132: 808-810.

Gray. J., 1960. Late Tertiary microflora from the Basin and Range Province, Arizona. Science. 132: 147-148.