María Elena Caso

María Elena Caso (18 December 1915 – 6 November 1991, Mexico) was a Mexican biologist who pioneered the study of starfish and other echinoderms in Mexico. She started the National Collection of Equinoderms in Mexico, the most important one in Latin America, which currently has at least 100.000 samples from 800 species from the Mexican coast and participated in the foundation of the laboratory of hydrobiology of the Biology Institute at the National Autonomous University of Mexico, currently known as "Marine Sciences and Limnology Institute". She became a reference scientist in marine biodiversity.