Helen Margaret Duncan (May 3, 1910 – August 14, 1971) was a geologist and paleontologist with the United States Geological Survey from 1945 to 1971, where she worked in the Paleontology and Stratigraphy Branch.
[1] Duncan was considered one of the strongest women in the Cincinnati geology department; her contributions to the Lipalian Research Foundation and the Pick and Hammer shows were additional work of her time.
Duncan paved the path for many geology scholars to follow with her discoveries on fossil records and her studies in paleontology and stratigraphy.
Additionally, before joining the United States Geological Survey (USGS) to work on military projects,[4] she switched to the applied science research division in 1942 as an assistant.
Duncan’s extensive work distinguished the features and distribution of Early, Middle and Late Ordovician as well as Silurian corals.
[8] Duncan's work was extremely detailed and meticulous, and her descriptions continue to be used as example of thoroughness in modern paleontology classes.
[9] In the early 1950s, she assisted collecting samples for George C. Hardin's Babb Fault System, Crittenden and Livingston Counties.
Her research on Paleozoic corals allowed Survey field geologists to exploit them for the first time in terms of stratigraphy.
As a result, the Paleontology and Stratigraphy Branch had to hire three extra coral specialists to handle the influx of collections that were sent in for identification.
She received the Meritorious Service Award from the Department of the Interior in 1971 for her numerous, largely anonymous contributions and noteworthy publications.
This fact alone gave Helen the idea that these Tentaculites shales came from the Silurian age, which dates 443 million years ago.