Elizabeth (Betsy) Laura Nicholls (January 31, 1946 – October 18, 2004) was an American-Canadianpaleontologist who specialized inTriassic marine reptiles.^[1] She was a paleontologist at theRoyal Tyrrell Museum inAlberta, Canada.

Nicholls was born inOakland, California, and received her undergraduate degree in 1968 from theUniversity of California, Berkeley and her graduate degrees, an M.Sc. in 1972 and a Ph.D. in 1989, from theUniversity of Calgary, working underSamuel Paul Welles.^[2]

She was the co-editor with American vertebrate paleontologist Jack Murff Callaway of the bookAncient Marine Reptiles.Latoplatecarpus nichollsae was named in her honor,^[1] as wasNichollsemys.^[3]

Nicholls was a 2000Rolex Awards for Enterprise laureate for exploration for her leadership in excavating the remains of a largeichthyosaur,Shonisaurus sikanniensis (Nicholls & Manabe, 2004), from theUpper TriassicPardonet Formation in a remote area of theSikanni Chief River in British Columbia.^[4][5]

Nicholls died from cancer in 2004 at age 58.^[6]

On May 6, 2017 theCanadian Fossil Discovery Centre established the Dr. Elizabeth 'Betsy' Nicholls Award for Excellence in Paleontology at its annual Dig Deep Gala. The announcement was made in the presence of Nicholls' husband and children to whom a plaque was given in honour of the occasion.^[7][8]

• Giant ichthyosaurs of the Triassic—a new species ofShonisaurus from the Pardonet Formation (Norian: Late Triassic) of British Columbia, EL Nicholls, M Manabe -Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology, 2004
• New material ofQianichthyosaurus Li, 1999 (Reptilia, Ichthyosauria) from the Late Triassic of southern China, and implications for the distribution of Triassic icthosaurs, EL Nicholls, C Wei, M Manabe -Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology, 2003
• New thalattosaurs (Reptilia: Diapsida) from the Triassic Sulphur Mountain Formation of Wapiti Lake, British Columbia, EL Nicholls, D Brinkman -Journal of Paleontology, 1993
• New material ofToxochelys latiremis Cope, and a revision of the genusToxochelys (Testvoines, Chelonioidea), EL Nicholls -Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology, 1988
• The first record of the mosasaurHainosaurus (Reptilia: Lacertilia) from North America, EL Nicholls -Canadian Journal of Earth Sciences, 1988
• The oldest known North American occurrence of the Plesiosauria (Reptilia: Sauropterygia) from the Liassic (Lower Jurassic) Fernie Group, Alberta, Canada, EL Nicholls -Canadian Journal of Earth Sciences, 1976

• Canadian paleontologists
• Canadian women scientists
• University of California, Berkeley alumni
• University of Calgary alumni
• 1945 births
• 2004 deaths
• 20th-century American women scientists
• Scientists from Oakland, California
• Paleontology in Alberta
• 21st-century American women scientists
• Canadian women paleontologists
• American women paleontologists
• 20th-century American scientists
• 21st-century American scientists
• 21st-century Canadian women scientists
• 21st-century Canadian scientists

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