Elizabeth Nicholls

For the suffragist in South Australia, see Elizabeth Webb Nicholls.

Elizabeth L. Nicholls
Born	(1946-01-31)January 31, 1946 Oakland, California
Died
Nationality	American, Canadian
Fields	Paleontology
Institutions	Royal Tyrrell Museum of Paleontology
Alma mater	University of California, Berkeley, University of Calgary
Doctoral advisor	Samuel P. Welles

Elizabeth (Betsy) L. Nicholls (January 31, 1946 – October 18, 2004) was an American-Canadian paleontologist who specialized in Triassic marine reptiles. She was a paleontologist at the Royal Tyrrell Museum in Alberta, Canada.

Nicholls was Born in Oakland, California, and received her undergraduate degree in 1968 from the University of California, Berkeley and her graduate degrees, an M.Sc. in 1972 and a Ph.D. in 1989, from the University of Calgary, working under Samuel Paul Welles. She was the co-editor with American vertebrate paleontologist Jack M. Callaway of the book Ancient Marine Reptiles. Latoplatecarpus nichollsae was named in her honor.

Nicholls was a 2000 Rolex Awards for Enterprise laureate for exploration for her leadership in excavating the remains of a large ichthyosaur, Shonisaurus sikanniensis (Nicholls & Manabe, 2004), from the Upper Triassic Pardonet Formation in a remote area of the Sikanni Chief River in British Columbia.

Nicholls died from cancer in 2004 at age 58.

Selected publications

• Giant ichthyosaurs of the Triassic—a new species of Shonisaurus from the Pardonet Formation (Norian: Late Triassic) of British Columbia, EL Nicholls, M Manabe - Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology, 2004
• New material of Qianichthyosaurus 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 of Toxochelys latiremis Cope, and a revision of the genus Toxochelys (Testvoines, Chelonioidea), EL Nicholls - Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology, 1988
• The first record of the mosasaur Hainosaurus (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