Enrique Martínez-Hernández (1942–2021)

Abstract

Keywords:

• Enrique Martínez Hernández
• Mexican palynology
• palynostratigraphy
• melissopalynology

1. Introduction

Enrique Martínez Hernández (Figure 1), the father of Mexican palynology, died on the 23rd of September 2021 at the age of 79 years. He was born on the 28th of May 1942 in Mexico City, Mexico, became interested in the natural sciences from an early age and went on to study Biology at the Faculty of Sciences of the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM). Enrique’s undergraduate thesis was entitled Palynological study of the dominant species of the surrounding vegetation of the Laguna Madre, Tamaulipas, and was carried out under the direction of Ayala Castañares, who was his first mentor in palynology. He obtained his Bachelor’s degree during January 1970.

During the 1970s, Enrique worked as a Research Assistant in palynostratigraphy at the Southwest Center for Advanced Studies at Southern Methodist University, Dallas, Texas, USA. This significant opportunity motivated him to pursue a Master’s degree at this institution with James Urban. Subsequently, his continuing interest in palynology led him to obtain a PhD working on the Cretaceous successions of Colorado under the supervision of Aureal T. Cross at Michigan State University, East Lansing, USA. His dissertation was entitled Palynologic analysis of paleoenvironments in the Mesa-Verde Group, Craig, Colorado, USA. During his doctoral training he was also a Research Assistant in palaeobotany, palynology and plant evolution. Following the awarding of his PhD, the very well-qualified Enrique returned home to Mexico City in 1979.

From 1979 to 2021, Enrique worked as a full-time researcher at the Institute of Geology at UNAM, where he founded a laboratory of palynology and extensive collections of modern and fossil palynomorphs from throughout Mexico. In 1980 he was promoted to the position of Professor and mainly taught palaeobiology and palaeontology.

2. Developing palynology in Mexico

Since the late 1970s, Enrique Martínez Hernández carried out extensive research in different aspects of palynology in Mexico, and this ensured he rapidly acquired an international scientific reputation. His work included researching the palaeoecology and palynostratigraphy of the Mesozoic basins of Mexico. Examples of these depocentres are the Cabullona, Coahuila, Fuentes-Río Escondido and Sonoran basins (Almeida and Martínez-Hernández 1980; Martínez-Hernández et al. 1982). Enrique also worked on the Gran Tesoro Formation of Durango (Aranda et al. 1988).

He also participated in work on the Cenozoic of Mexico (MartÍnez-Hernández and Ramírez-Arriaga 1996). Specifically, Enrique worked on the Burgos Basin, Tamaulipas (Martínez-Hernández et al. 1980); the Simojovel Basin, Chiapas (Tomasini-Ortíz and Martínez-Hernández 1984); the Ixtapa Basin, Chiapas (Martínez-Hernández 1992); and the Tepexi de Rodríguez Basin, Puebla (Martínez-Hernández and Ramírez-Arriaga 1999). Enrique and his collaborators also worked in detail on several Paleogene–Neogene lithostratigraphical units in Mexico including the Cuayuca Formation (Ramírez-Arriaga et al. 2005, 2006, 2008, 2015); the Tehuacán Formation (Dávalos-Álvarez et al. 2007; Ramírez-Arriaga et al. 2014a); various Eocene units in Oaxaca (Ferrusquia-Villafranca et al. 2018); the El Morro and Metzitlán formations of Hidalgo (Carrasco-Velázquez et al. 2008, 2009); and the San Gregorio Formation of Baja California (Ramírez-Arriaga et al. 2021). He also worked on modern dinoflagellate cysts from the Gulf of California (Martínez-Hernández and Hernández-Campos 1991).

Palynotaxonomy was also one of the main topics of Enrique’s research, and this comprised work on several botanical families such as the Amaranthaceae, Chloranthaceae, Cornaceae, Fabaceae, Moraceae, Nyctaginaceae, Onagraceae, and Rubiaceae (Ludlow and Martínez-Hernández 1978, 1979; Delgado-Salinas et al. 1982; Sosa and Martínez-Hernández 1980; Reyes-Salas and Martínez-Hernández 1982; Martínez-Hernández 1995; Ibarra-Manríquez and Martínez-Hernández 1997; Cruz-Durán and Martínez-Hernández 2000; Flores-Olvera et al. 2006; Ramírez-Arriaga et al. 2014b, González-Vázquez et al. 2017; Torres-Montufar et al. 2020).

Enrique was also active in melissopalynology, and he worked on studies pertaining to the western honey bee (Apis mellifera) as well as native Mexican bees (e.g. Martínez-Hernández et al. 1994; Ramírez-Arriaga et al. 1995; Ramírez-Arriaga and Martínez-Hernández 1998, 2007; Sosa-Nájera et al. 1994; Quiroz-García et al. 2000, 2001). In addition, he made significant contributions on Quaternary palynology (Xelhuantzi et al. 1989) and aeropalynology (Tejero-Díez et al. 1988; López-Campos et al. 2003; Ríos et al. 2014).

Enrique mentored and trained many palynologists for Batchelor's, Master's and Doctoral degrees in different aspects of palynology in his laboratory. Several of these graduates were subsequently employed by Mexican institutions such as the Instituto Politécnico Nacional, Universidad Autónoma Metropolitana, Instituto Mexicano del Petróleo, Instituto Nacional de Antropología e Historia and UNAM. Another of Enrique’s major achievements was helping to found the Museum of Tepexi de Rodríguez in Puebla.

3. Enrique’s research outputs in palynology

Enrique Martínez-Hernández was extremely scientifically productive, and wrote or co-wrote six books, five book chapters and well over 80 peer-reviewed papers. He also won research funding and collaborated widely. Notable among his many research projects were collaborations with PEMEX on the palynology of oil wells in the southern zone of Coatzacoalcos, Veracruz, and working with the Mexican Petroleum Institute on the palynostratigraphy of the Jurassic–Cretaceous and Cenozoic strata of Chiapas and the Tampico-Misantla Basin respectively. Enrique also worked with the Consejo de Recursos Minerales on the palynology of the Tubutama Basin of Sonora, and studied the alluvium from the Hermosillo area, Sonora. Other notable projects included the geology and palaeontology of Tepexi de Rodríguez, Puebla, and the systematization of fossil and recent pollen collections.

4. The teaching vocation of Enrique Martínez-Hernández

Enrique was known for his extraordinary penchant for teaching, an activity that he began to develop when he was an undergraduate student of biology. During the 1960s, he taught general biology, botany and zoology at various UNAM National Preparatory Schools. During the next decade and beyond, Enrique later worked as an Assistant Professor of Botany and Plant Ecology at UNAM and participated in field classes in biology and palaeontology. From the 1980s until 2021, he was Professor of Palaeontology, Palaeobiology and Palynology at UNAM where he taught undergraduate and graduate courses throughout the Faculty of Sciences and the Graduate Program of Biological Sciences. His graduate classes in palynology included modules on pollen morphology, and the practical applications of palynology.

5. Leadership roles, editorial/evaluation work and honours

At the Institute of Geology of UNAM, Enrique was head of the Department of Palaeontology between 1986 and 1994, and a member of the Review Committee (1992–1998). Also at UNAM, he also served on the Internal Advisory Council, the Graduate Program of Biological Sciences, and the Internal Board.

Enrique served on the Editorial Committee of Palinológica et Paleobotánica. He also was on the Advisory Board of Anales (Botanical Series) of the Institute of Biology as well as being a scientific co-editor of the Revista Mexicana de Ciencias Geológicas. Enrique also found time to be an evaluator of Consejo Nacional de Ciencia y Tecnología (CONACyT) project proposals, and to act as a reviewer for referee of several scientific journals. He was a Director at Large of the American Association of Stratigraphic Palynologists between 2003 and 2004. The National Association of Researchers in Mexico made Enrique a member of the Sistema Nacional de Investigadores of CONACyT in 1983.

6. Overview

For his outstanding research and teaching career of 58 years, Professor Enrique Martínez-Hernández will always be remembered as the father of Mexican palynology. He consistently demonstrated great passion for research on fossil and modern palynomorphs from his native land. Notwithstanding all his great achievements mentioned herein, Enrique stood out for his myriad human qualities, for example his great sense of humour. He was an inspiring figure and a fantastic mentor. Enrique always made laboratory work and field studies hugely enjoyable for all his colleagues and students. He will be long admired and remembered as an outstanding researcher and teacher, who was fully committed to the National Autonomous University of Mexico.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Figure 1. Enrique Martínez-Hernández, the father of Mexican palynology.