Helen Frances James

Helen Frances James (born 22 May 1956 in Hot Springs, Arkansas) is an American paleontologist and Paläornithologin, often along with her ​​then-husband Storrs Lovejoy Olson operation extensive research on the fossil and subfossil avifauna of the Hawaiian Islands. She is a curator for birds in the Department of Vertebrate Zoology at the National Museum of Natural History in Washington, DC

Life and work

The parents of Helen Frances James were both ecologists. She grew up in the Ozark Mountains near Fayetteville on where she developed an interest in natural history and archeology early. As an adolescent she spent two years with her family in Ghana. Upon her return she enrolled at the age of 16 years at the University of Arkansas, where she graduated in archeology and physical anthropology in 1977.

After graduating, James worked for the National Museum of Natural History, first as an assistant to Richard Zusi in the study of anatomy and systematics of hummingbirds and then with Storrs Lovejoy Olson in the study of the fossil avifauna of the Hawaiian Islands. Olson and James ' research lasted over 23 years and led to the discovery of the fossil remains of more than 50 extinct Vogeltaxa. 1981 married Olson and James.

In 2000, Helen Frances James received her Ph.D. in Zoology at Oxford University with a dissertation on the osteology and phylogeny of the dresses birds. In addition, she conducted research on the fossil vertebrate fauna of Madagascar, in particular on the paleoecology, comparative osteology and phylogeny of passerines as well as on the evolution of aquatic birds.