Early life

Joan Wiffen was brought up in Havelock North

Havelock North, New Zealand

Havelock North is a suburb in Hastings, New Zealand, in the North Island's Hawke's Bay region. It ranked as a borough for many years until the 1989 reorganisation of local government saw it merged into the new Hastings District....

 and King Country

King Country

The King Country is a region of the western North Island of New Zealand. It extends approximately from the Kawhia Harbour and the town of Otorohanga in the north to the upper reaches of the Whanganui River in the south, and from the Hauhungaroa and Rangitoto Ranges in the east to near the Tasman...

. Born in 1922 Joan Wiffen only had a very short secondary school education as her father believed that higher education was wasted on girls, so he made her leave. At the age of sixteen Joan joined the Women's Auxiliary Air Force

Women's Auxiliary Air Force

The Women's Auxiliary Air Force , whose members were invariably referred to as Waafs , was the female auxiliary of the Royal Air Force during World War II, established in 1939. At its peak strength, in 1943, WAAF numbers exceeded 180,000, with over 2,000 women enlisting per week.A Women's Royal Air...

 during World War II where she served for six years.

Career

In 1975 Joan Wiffen discovered the first dinosaur fossils in New Zealand in the Maungahounga Valley in Northern Hawkes Bay. Her first discovery was the tail bone of a theropod

Joan Wiffen's Theropod

Joan Wiffen's Theropod is a currently unnamed dinosaur that was found by Joan Wiffen in Cretaceous rocks of New Zealand. It is known from one single tail vertebra, and is probably a type of Allosaur, because this is what the tail vertebra seems to resemble most...

 dinosaur. Her later finds included bones from a hypsilophodont

Hypsilophodont

Hypsilophodonts were small ornithopod dinosaurs, regarded as fast, herbivorous bipeds on the order of 1–2 meters long . They are known from Asia, Australia, Europe, New Zealand, North America, and South America, from rocks of Middle Jurassic to late Cretaceous age...

, a pterosaur

Pterosaur

Pterosaurs were flying reptiles of the clade or order Pterosauria. They existed from the late Triassic to the end of the Cretaceous Period . Pterosaurs are the earliest vertebrates known to have evolved powered flight...

, an ankylosaur

Ankylosauria

Ankylosauria is a group of herbivorous dinosaurs of the order Ornithischia. It includes the great majority of dinosaurs with armor in the form of bony osteoderms. Ankylosaurs were bulky quadrupeds, with short, powerful limbs. They are first known to have appeared in the early Jurassic Period of...

, mosasaur

Mosasaur

Mosasaurs are large extinct marine lizards. The first fossil remains were discovered in a limestone quarry at Maastricht on the Meuse in 1764...

s and plesiosaur

Plesiosaur

Plesiosauroidea is an extinct clade of carnivorous plesiosaur marine reptiles. Plesiosauroids, are known from the Jurassic and Cretaceous Periods...

s. In 1999, Wiffen discovered the vertebra bone of a titanosaur

Titanosaur

Titanosaurs were a diverse group of sauropod dinosaurs, which included Saltasaurus and Isisaurus. It includes some of the heaviest creatures ever to walk the earth, such as Argentinosaurus and Paralititan — which some believe have weighed up to 100 tonnes...

 in a tributary of the Te Hoe River

Te Hoe River

The Te Hoe River is a river of the Hawke's Bay Region of New Zealand's North Island. It flows south from its sources west of Lake Waikaremoana to reach the Mohaka River 20 kilometres north of Lake Tutira....

. The fossils Wiffen found are primarily held in a GNS Science

GNS Science

GNS Science is a New Zealand Crown Research Institute. It focuses on geology, geophysics , and nuclear science ....

 collection.

Awards

In 1995, she was made a Commander of the Order of the British Empire

Order of the British Empire

The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is an order of chivalry established on 4 June 1917 by George V of the United Kingdom. The Order comprises five classes in civil and military divisions...

 in honor of her discoveries. In 2004, she won the Morris Skinner Award from the Society of Vertebrate Paleontology

Society of Vertebrate Paleontology

The Society of Vertebrate Paleontology was founded in 1940 for individuals with an interest in vertebrate paleontology. SVP now has almost 2,000 members. The society's website states that SVP "is organized exclusively for educational and scientific purposes...

.

Personal life

In 1953 Joan Wiffen married her husband Pont Wiffen and they had two children together, one in which they named Chris. But before the children were born Pont and Joan travelled wifely in both New Zealand and Australia collecting both minerals and small fossils of sea animals. Joan and her husband were very interested in fossils, and Pont ended up taking classes on fossils and such things. One day when Pont was home sick, Joan went to the class in his place and ever since then she was in awe of dinosaurs and fossils. She died at the age of 87 on 30 June 2009 in Hastings Hospital.

External links

• "Dinosaur finder", audio of Wiffen speaking about her first visit to Maungahounga. Radio New Zealand Sound Archives Ngā Taonga Kōrero.