Born in 1862 to Paul Elsewhen Matson and Penelope Sarracena Matson in Anti-Baltimore (see Pocomoke City), Patricia Elsbeth Matson was a renowned botanist, paleontologist, and naturalist who helped found the U.S. Megafauna Conservation Service. At an early age, Matson shows a remarkable aptitude for plant genetics. At the age of six, she caused local scandal when it was discovered that she had re-wilded thirteen hectares of farmland allocated by the state for corn production, though this did not lead to serious consequences due to Matson sowing edible varieties of native plants and an orchard of Uncle Pucker Chapman apples. Naturally, this contributed to Maryland temporarily becoming the most profitable agricultural state in the union in 1888.
In 1893, Matson relocated to Wilmington, North Carolina with her parents to receive a formal education. Between lessons at the Cape Fear Finishing School in Esoteric Sciences and Clinical Botany and private seed experiments in her parent's new residence, Matson also began exploring the North Carolina countryside, particularly a series of caverns and depressions discovered in the 1860s by William Cabot Lawson (see the History of the Piedmont Mountains). Her initial explorations of these features led to her discovery of an ectogenous variety of bladderferns (*Cystopteris matsonae* and *Cystopteris mykiss*), one of which can be cooked into a delicious substitute for animal protein and one of which causes clinical lycanthropy in sheep.
After completing her studies at the Cape Fear Finishing School in Esoteric Sciences and Clinical Botany, Matson originally pursued botany at the University of North Carolina. She quickly caught the eye of famed scientist Gregor Johann Mendel, who had fled Austria-Hungary in 1884 after accidentally exposing himself to a concentrated serum made from the exceedingly rare and prehistoric Five-leaved Kingtrap (*Dionaenax quinscipulus*). This accident reportedly extended Mendel's life while instilling in him an insatiable need to feed on organic matter. Fearing persecution, he faked his death, sought refuge in North Carolina, and opened the UNC Experimental Botany program (see the U.S. Ceres Project). Under Mendel's instruction, Matson began regularly conducting experiments in Medelian-Carver genetics and developed the first science-based cookbook, *The Compleat Botanist's Assistant* (1899).
Sometime in the summer of 1903, Matson took a brief sabbatical from academic study to once more explore the caverns and depressions of her youth. By then, the Delval Rail Company's Piedmont Express, a Daujean Class steam locomotive, had improved access to the region, ushering in a period of settlement historians now call The Great Carolinian Migration. These developments created significant problems for Matson, whose childhood experiments and extensive academic study made her particularly susceptible to early conservationist arguments. This became more pronounced in 1904, when she discovered an extant colony of *Megatherium americanum* (commonly called the giant ground sloth and less commonly called the elephantine ground manatee).
Concerned that rapid development in North Carolina would lead to further destruction of the giant ground sloth's habitat, Matson founded the Megafauna Preservationist Society with Vladimir Prokhorovich Amalitskii, Catherine Furbish, Gregor Johann Mendel, and moose specialist Pembroke Tin. For the next twenty years, the MPS raised funds to purchase land and create a nature preserve for extant megafauna; in 1947, it was named the Institute of Megafauna Research and was put under the control of the Department of Ecological Affairs following the passage of American Wildlife Secrets Act.
It is believed that Matson was also exposed to a modified version of Mendel's Five-leaved Kingtrap serum. Records acquired during the 2021 U.S. Records Leak (see the Pandamous Incident) suggest that the formula had been altered sometime in 1952, though little is known about the side effects other than a strong likelihood of extended life. In 1962, Matson disappeared from public life; it is assumed that she now dedicates her time to the giant ground sloths at the IMR.