Linda McCall
Linda McCall
Linda McCall
Avocational Paleontologist
Linda McCall is an avocational paleontologist, or someone who pursues paleontology as a non-professional. She has been lead author on four papers, presented at scientific meetings, and spoken out about legislation regulating fossil collecting.
Linda was passionate about paleontology and fascinated by fossils from an early age. She attended the University of Texas as a Geology major in the mid-1970s. Unfortunately, the culture of the time was not supportive of women doing paleontological field work. She was discouraged from seeking a college degree in the 1970s by college counselors’ claims that her best career prospects as a paleontologist would focus on lab-based micropaleontology. (Read more about micropaleontology and its history as an acceptable field for women in the 1900s at Daring to Dig: Women in Industry.) She left school and started a family, but continued to pursue her passion as an avocational, or non-professional, paleontologist.
Linda first coauthored a scientific paper in the 1980s, when she helped describe a new species of fossil echinoderm. Her next paper was published in 2008 and was coauthored with colleagues Ann Molineaux (now deceased) and James Sprinkle. Through continued collaborations, Linda has published a total of five peer-reviewed papers, four as lead author; two of her papers won awards. She has also presented 13 abstracts at professional conventions (abstracts are summaries of talks or posters given at professional scientific conferences), all since turning 50 years old—in her words, “Better late than never.” Her current fields of study include preserved color in Oligocene and Cretaceous invertebrates and preserved ligaments in late Pleistocene bivalves.
Linda is an active and strong voice speaking out about the Paleontological Resources Preservation Act (PRPA), and she served on the Paleontological Society's Ad Hoc Committee on Government Affairs. She has given numerous presentations on the repercussions that legislation regulating fossil collecting on public lands would have on the non-professional community.
Linda continues to be a fierce advocate for collaboration between the professional and non-professional sides of paleontology and seeks to bridge the two. She currently acts as the Avocational Liaison to the Paleontological Society. She remains an active member of numerous professional and non-professional paleontological organizations and has donated tens of thousands of specimens to various universities and museums over the years. In 2020, Linda was the first women to win the Paleontological Society Strimple Award—an award given annually that recognizes an outstanding avocational paleontologist—on her own (in other words, she was the first sole woman to win the award; other women who previously won it were part of a family or a pair of awardees).
To date, one new genus and one new species have been named in Linda’s honor.
Daring to Dig Interview
In this video, Linda recounts how she became interested in paleontology as a child, her experiences as a college student, how she came to publish her first lead-authored paper in 2008, and the challenges that she faced as a women in avocational paleontology. This interview was recorded in 2015.
Works by Linda McCall
McCall, L., J. Sprinkle, and A. Molineaux. 2008. Spectacularly preserved, mollusc-dominated fauna from a cavity layer in the Lower Cretaceous Edwards Formation, Central Texas. Gulf Coast Association Geological Societies Transactions 58: 683–694. Link
McCall, L., J. Sprinkle, and A. Molineaux. 2010. Comparison of two mollusc-dominated faunas from cavity layers in the Lower Creatceous Edwards Formation of Central Texas. Gulf Coast Association Geological Societies Transactions 60: 487–502. Link
McCall, L., J. Sprinkle, A. Molineaux, and C. Garvie. 2012. An undescribed fauna from the Upper Cretaceous ‘Pyroclastic Zone’ of the Austin Group at Pilot Knob, Central Texas. Gulf Coast Association Geological Societies Transactions: 287–301. Link
Sprinkle, J., L. Henry, F.S. Zimmer, L.S. Kelley, and J. Whiteley. 1985. New Pleurocystites from the Bromide Formation of Oklahoma. Journal of Paleontology 59: 1476–1480. [In this publication, Linda was going by the name Linda Henry.] Link
Further reading
2018. Amateur Spotlight: Linda McCall. Interview of Linda McCall by Jennifer Bauer. myFOSSIL. Link