Duncan Merrilees

Duncan Merrilees (1922–2009) was an Australian geologist, palaeontologist, lecturer and curator at the Western Australian Museum. His research on the fossil records of mammals also founded examination into the period after the arrival of humans and their role within the ecology of the Australian continent. His excavations and research into mammalian palaeontology also included description of unknown species of extinct marsupials.

Biography Merrilees was born in Sydney and graduated from the city's university with a degree in chemistry in 1942. His qualifications saw him deployed during the Second World War to a Tasmanian wood pulping industry. His interest was drawn at this time to the study of igneous rock and then to the examination of fossilised mammals. He moved to Western Australia in 1951, after discontinuing a teaching career, and began lecturing in scientific literacy at the University of Western Australia. An overlapping role with the works of the Western Australian Museum was eventually altered to a full time position of curator of the palaeontology, mineral and meteorite collections. His major focus in palaeontology was what he referred to as the "large extinct marsupials".