Margaret Bradshaw
British-born New Zealand geologist
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Through Antarctica and Biogeography
Early life and education
Born Margaret Ann Cresswell in Nottingham, England, on 31 December 1941, she married John Dudley Bradshaw in Nottingham in 1963, and they moved to Christchurch, New Zealand, in 1966. Bradshaw began her work there on Devonian invertebrate palaeontology, gradually incorporating Antarctica into her research. She became a naturalised New Zealand citizen in 1980.
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Career and impact
Bradshaw focused her research on the structure and stratigraphy of Devonian rocks, around 400 million years old, in New Zealand and Antarctica. Specifically she worked on the development and relationship of Paleozoic terrains in New Zealand, as well as the paleobiogeography of Devonian Bivalves and the Paleontology and environmental significance of Paleozoic Trace fossils in both New Zealand, Antarctica and Australia. Bradshaw was a curator at the Canterbury Museum and her initial trips to Antarctica were to collect fossils and rocks for the Antarctic display.
Bradshaw was the curator of Geology at the Canterbury Museum for 17 years. Her first trip to Antarctica was from 1975 to 1976 to collect specimens for the museum's Antarctic Hall. Bradshaw was the first woman to lead an Antarctic deep field party in her 1979 to 1980 field season to the remote Ohio Range and she was the first to discover new fish fossils in the exposures of the Cook Mountains in her 1988 to 1989 field season.
Bradshaw was the president of the New Zealand Antarctic Society for 10 years until 2003. She is a member of the Association of Australian Paleontologists.
Later life
Bradshaw's husband, John Bradshaw, died in 2025.