Dinosaur expert was giant in field

Caption1: Body1: Joan Wiffen studied dinosaurs for more than 30 years and in the process became immortalised as a giant in the field of palaeontology by her peers worldwide in the scientific community.
The 87-year-old, who lived in Havelock North, passed away suddenly at Hawke's Bay Hospital on Tuesday.
She left behind an enormous contribution to the scientific community.
Her achievements began when she found the tail bone of a theropod dinosaur in the Maungahouanga Valley in northern Hawke's Bay in 1975.
It was the first recorded discovery of a dinosaur bone in New Zealand.
In the following years she discovered dozens more dinosaur bones and was the author and co-author of more than a dozen scientific papers. She wrote her achievements into a book called Valley of the Dragons.
She was born in 1922 and brought up in the King Country and Hawke's Bay.
She had only a brief secondary school education and served in the Women's Auxiliary Air Force during World War II before marrying Pont Wiffen in 1953.
She became interested in geology when raising her two children at Haumoana where the family began rock collecting.
After her husband enrolled in night classes in geology, but became ill, she went in his place.
"I knew what I wanted - to collect fossils," she later said.
Vertebrate paleontologist and co-author of Dr Wiffen's books Ralph Molnar said that in her 50s when "most of us would be contemplating retirement" she was prospecting for reptilian fossils.
"In the 1970s she and her husband, known to his friends as Pont, decided to hunt for fossils in the North Island ... By 1980, in addition to fossils of marine reptiles, Joan and Pont had discovered a single bone of a dinosaur, the first from New Zealand.
"Her later work was to reveal evidence of probably five types of dinosaur as well as of one flying reptile [pterosaur]."
Paleontologist James Crampton from GNS Science said she had a "great legacy".
"I guess for me, her story is a wonderful example of the intense interest, drive and energy that motivate many natural historians - amateur and professional scientists alike - the simple joy of discovery that has led to all the great scientific discoveries throughout history."
Most of her finds are held at the GNS collection.
Head of the department of geology at Otago University Associate Professor Ewan Fordyce said she had produced a series of scientific publications on Late Cretaceous biotas, including bony fish, plesiosaurs and others.
"Such articles are the fundamentals of paleontology and they give a certain immortality to the writer."
In 1994 she received an honorary doctorate from Massey University and the next year was made a CBE.
Five years later she found a tailbone which was identified as coming from a titanosaurid, one of the biggest dinosaurs.
In 2002 a documentary was aired on TV One called The Lost Dinosaurs of New Zealand that celebrated her remarkable life.
In 2004 she accepted the prestigious Morris Skinner Award by the US-based Society of Vertebrate Palaeontology for outstanding and sustained contributions to scientific knowledge.
In 2007 the National Aquarium of New Zealand in Napier held an exhibition featuring dinosaur bones and fossils discovered by Dr Wiffen.
In 2008 Dr Wiffen told Hawke's Bay Today that though she had identified dinosaurs had lived in New Zealand, "there is still a lot to learn".
She said she was still active as a fossil hunter but "getting a bit ancient for fossicking".
Dr Wiffen is survived by her son and daughter and a stepson and their families.
The funeral will be held at 11am tomorrow at St Columbas Presbyterian Church in Havelock North.