Halszka Osmólska (September 15, 1930 – March 31, 2008) was a Polish paleontologist who had specialized in Mongolian dinosaurs.

Biography

She was born in 1930 in Poznań. In 1949, she began to study biology at Faculty of Biology and Earth Sciences of the University of Poznań before moving to Warsaw and studying at the University of Warsaw, which she graduated from in 1955. Since then she worked at the Institute of Paleobiology of the Polish Academy of Sciences (PAN). Between 1983–1988, she served as the institute's director. She was a member of the Polish–Mongolian expeditions to the Gobi Desert (1963–1965 and 1967–1971) and she described many finds from these rocks, often with Teresa Maryańska. Among the dinosaurs she described are: Her other work included discussions of the paleobiology of hadrosaurids, and co-editing the two editions of The Dinosauria. She is recognized for her work in the names of the Mongolian oviraptorid Citipati osmolskae, the Chinese dromaeosaurid Velociraptor osmolskae, the Mongolian dromaeosaurid Halszkaraptor escuilliei, the archosauriform reptile Osmolskina czatkowicensis, and the Polish Pliocene lagomorph Prolagus osmolskae. Osmólska was, in recognition of her scientific work, a recipient of a number of awards including the Polish Cross of Merit.

Selected publications