Elga Mark-Kurik, bibliography

Elga Mark-Kurik had a long life and fruitful professional career. Her main passion were Devonian fishes and how they lived. Her many contributions to Devonian stratigraphy span over seven decades, working as a researcher at the Institute of Geology of the Estonian S.S.R. Academy of Sciences, in Tallinn, later a part of Tallinn University. Elga graduated in 1955 as Candidate (corresponding to a PhD) of Geological and Mineralogical Sciences with a thesis on the agnathan psammosteids (MARK 1955). She was mentored by D.V. OBRUCHEV of Moscow. Elga chose Devonian placoderms and psammosteid heterostracans as her main research objects (with over 50% of her publications), understanding the implications of her fossils for functional interpretation and palaeogeography, and their contribution to biostratigraphy. In consideration of her research on early vertebrates, she was awarded in 1992 the K. E. von BAER’s Memorial Medal by the Estonian Academy of Sciences. (By Anonymous, 2018)