Maria Schilder, née Hertrich (4 August 1898 – 30 July 1975) was a German malacologist and chemist.[1] Along with her husband, Franz Alfred Schilder, she systematized molluscs having produced over 250 scientific papers, most on the living and fossil Cypraeidae, or cowries.[2]
Life
Maria Hertrich was born on 4 August 1898.[1] She was from Munich.[3] Around 1922 she married Franz Alfred Schilder.[2] They had one daughter Franzisca who died in 1961.[3]
Being initially a chemist, Schilder switched her professional focus to the study of molluscs.[2] Together with her husband, Franz Alfred, Schilder studied the family Cypraeidae, the cowries.[4] The Schilders defined areas of endemism throughout the Indo-West Pacific based on mollusk distributions.[5] Along with her husband, Schilder identified geographically distinct races (or subspecies) and recognized them taxonomically.[4]
In “Revision of the Genus Monetaria (Cypraeidae)” they researched how Bergmann’s Rule applied to east coastal Australia where the shells are smaller in the warmer north.[6] Together the Schilders wrote over 250 scientific papers, most on the living and fossil Cypraeidae, or cowries.[2]
After the death of her husband, Schilder published A Catalog of Living and Fossil Cowries in 1971.[7]
Schilder is honored in the cowry name Annepona mariae (Schilder, 1927) and her daughter Franzisca is honored in the cowry name Bistolida hirundo francisca (Schilder & Schilder, 1938).[3]
Publications (selection)
1930 – Variationsstatistische studien an Monetaria annulus (Moll. Gastr. Cypraeidae)
1938 – Prodrome of a monograph on living Cypraeidae
1949 – Beiträge zur taxonomischen Zoologie
1952 – Die Kaurischnecke
1954 – Zahl und Verbreitung der Käfer
1971 – A catalogue of living and fossil cowries. Taxonomy and bibliography of Triviacea and Cypraeacea
