what is required in college to become a paleontologist
Do y'all dream of one solar day digging up a dinosaur, experience a thrill at the thought of unearthing a fossil that hasn't been seen for millions of years or just love learning about prehistoric life?
Dr Susie Maidment shares her experiences of what it's like to be a dinosaur researcher, the time she met Sir David Attenborough, how she got into this career and advice for budding palaeontologists.
What does your task as a palaeontologist involve?
My task has ii parts: one-half the time I'g a researcher and the other half I'm a curator.
My inquiry involves studying dinosaurs to improve empathise how they lived their lives. To do this I study specimens in museum collections, go out to try to find new specimens and study the rocks in which the specimens are found. Then there's quite a lot of data assay that takes place when I get back home from the fieldwork or museum collection visit.
As a curator I look after the Museum'southward dinosaur collection and assist other researchers who want to come and study the cloth and acquire more about the animals in the collection. I also assist to make our collection digitally accessible - putting specimens on a big database to make information technology publically bachelor then that people can see what'south in our collection and learn more than about it.
Susie 3D scanning her favourite fossil - the holotype specimen of the stegosaur Dacentrurus armatus, which is on display in the in the Museum's Fossil Marine Reptiles gallery
What do palaeontologists practice other than written report dinosaurs?
Palaeontologists actually report all fossilised by life. That can include everything from corals and shellfish to fishes and mammals. Information technology's not just animals either, palaeontologists besides report ancient plants. They use the information they uncover non only to larn about the lives of the animals, simply to empathize what the Earth was like in the past.
I recollect palaeontology has probably never been more of import than information technology is today. That'due south because in the modern world nosotros know that there are patterns of biodiversity distribution - the way that life is distributed on the surface of the Globe - simply we don't know why those patterns exist. And considering we don't know why those patterns be, nosotros don't know how they will change - in response to a warming Globe, for instance.
One way we can test our ideas is to look back at a time in the past when weather condition were different - during the Jurassic there was no ice at the poles, for example - and come across how biodiversity was distributed then. This can aid u.s.a. make predictions nearly how it might change in the future.
What made yous want to be a palaeontologist?
So this is a true story, although information technology doesn't sound similar ane.
When I was 7, my granddad asked me, 'What are yous going to be when y'all grow upwards?'
I was wavering at the time between scientist and princess. He strongly supported the scientist idea and asked me, 'What sort of scientist?' At the time I didn't realise there were different sorts of scientists, but I really liked dinosaurs.
He said, 'Why don't you be a dinosaur scientist?'
I thought, 'Okay, that sounds fine. I'll practise that.' And I did. It fabricated all my career interviews at schoolhouse very simple.
When this photo was taken, Susie was already a big fan of dinosaurs. Hither she is pictured with her blood brother Tom on Charmouth Beach on the Jurassic Coast in Dorset. She later gained work experience at the nearby Charmouth Heritage Coast Centre.
What subjects do you need to written report to become a palaeontologist?
Yous demand to report science subjects. Maths isn't essential, but it has become increasingly important every bit a tool for palaeontology. A solid background in maths is generally useful for any scientific discipline career.
I particularly liked biological science and chemistry, and I besides really enjoyed geography, specially physical geography - studying rocks and the natural environment, and how environments and landscapes evolve. I took A-Levels in these three subjects.
Do you need a degree to become a palaeontologist?
A PhD is essential if you desire to exist a researcher. To get onto a PhD programme you need a actually good undergraduate degree.
People tend to get into vertebrate palaeontology either from a geological groundwork or a more zoological background. Earlier my PhD I did an MSci, which is a four-year degree, in geological sciences. Several of my colleagues have degrees in zoology. A science undergraduate degree is crucial, and preferably one of those.
The vast bulk of curators have a PhD too. At a minimum they'll usually have an MSc as well as their undergraduate degree. The MSc will be in either Museum Studies or a subject area related to their bailiwick area, such equally geology or palaeontology.
Susie studying a Stegosaurus specimen on display at the Prehistoric Museum in Price, Utah, during her PhD
What work experience would you recommend for aspiring palaeontologists?
If you tin, volunteer at a local Museum. I spent the summertime I was 17 working at Charmouth Heritage Coast Heart on the Jurassic Declension.
To be a palaeontologist y'all have to actually beloved the outdoors and enjoy existence outside a lot, peculiarly if y'all want to report geology as an undergraduate degree. Doing something like the Duke of Edinburgh's Award can give you a really useful gear up of skills that you will need as a geology undergraduate.
Are there any clubs or societies that immature people can join or go to if they want to take their involvement in palaeontology farther?
The Geologists' Association in the UK is a really practiced place for amateurs also every bit professional person earth scientists. They run Rockwatch, a order for children and immature people up to the historic period of 18 who are interested in rock, fossils, minerals and the geology of landscapes. The Palaeontological Association is aimed at adults, but information technology provides some resources related to careers in palaeontoIogy.
What advice would you lot give anyone considering this career?
You really need to focus on getting practiced academic qualifications.
When choosing your degree grade, rather than going straight for a palaeontology degree, I would recommend choosing something that will give you a broader skillset, like geology. It'southward better to narrow downward your speciality later, rather than risk limiting your options for your future career.
Susie drilling a core sample for palaeomagnetic analysis to help determine the age of the rocks
What's the best thing almost being a palaeontologist?
I love fieldwork. I admittedly love studying rocks and looking for fossils. I'thou grateful for the opportunity to become outside and practice that. I likewise love instruction in the field - I love educating other people about rocks, fossils and how the natural surroundings forms.
Susie perching side by side to sauropod vertebrae exposed in sandstone in the Morrison Formation near Torrey, Utah in 2015
What's the worst affair virtually being a palaeontologist?
There's nothing… there are no bad or boring days!
What has been your near memorable or enjoyable moment?
Oh goodness, that's hard. A actually memorable moment for me is when the Museum unveiled Sophie the Stegosaurus.
I'd been working on the specimen on-and-off since 2005, so I was very happy when the Museum was able to larn it in 2013. I continued to work on it behind the scenes for a yr before it was put on display and published several papers on it.
Seeing the specimen mounted in all its glory and having Sir David Attenborough unveil it to the public was fantastic. Prof Paul Barrett introduced me to him as the world dominance on stegosaurs, which was pretty amazing.
Susie spent many years studying the Museum'southward Stegosaurus specimen before information technology was unveiled in the Museum's Earth Hall by Sir David Attenborough
What's the most exciting thing you've institute or researched?
In 2015 my colleague and I discovered dinosaur blood and blood cells. It's the highest bear upon stuff that I've done so far.
We didn't set out looking for blood. It was a completely chance discovery. Nosotros put some fossils under a scanning electron microscope and were very surprised by what nosotros found.
What is a day in the life of a palaeontologist like?
It's very varied. I rarely spend much time at my desk. I often have interesting visitors who come to study the dinosaur collection, who I spend fourth dimension helping. I'm involved in exhibitions and I practise lots of public appointment, giving talks both in the Museum and externally. And I research quite a wide diversity of things.
As a researcher you're nearly self-employed. You really become to practise what y'all want, within reason. You can decide you lot're interested in something and, equally long as you could publish a paper on it or information technology might get you some funding, you tin pursue it.
I've just returned from fieldwork and you can follow what that was like on Twitter #MissionJurassic.
Otherwise a day of inquiry ideally involves concentrating on one matter for the whole solar day. That might be writing a newspaper, analysing a dataset computationally, or sitting in the collection and describing some fossils.
Susie logging sedimentary rocks in the Morrison Formation to proceeds a better understanding of the environment in which dinosaurs lived
Could you tell us what you've been doing today?
I try to split my week upwards so I have two days of curation and 2 of research. The fifth twenty-four hours I focus on public appointment. Today I've been doing curation.
I started the morn by reviewing a manuscript for a journal that I'g an associate editor of - I have to read the paper and make up one's mind whether to recommend that it is sent out for farther review or non.
My first visitor arrived at 9.30, so I showed him the specimens he was interested in. Then I spent some time on emails before I met with the Museum's exhibition loans officer in the drove. We identified a number of specimens to loan to two museums for their exhibitions and measured them, took photos and stuff similar that.
Then my 2nd visitor of the day arrived. I spent quite a flake of time showing him around the collections and so we had lunch together. This afternoon I'chiliad existence interviewed for a couple of manufactures.
After that I need to go down to the Imaging and Analysis Center to collect an elephant bird egg, which is currently in the CT scanner. We're scanning it for an external researcher and I have to bring information technology back to the collection. I'm likewise taking down some dinosaur specimens to be 3D scanned. I'll probably terminate my mean solar day by reviewing another paper.
Where practise yous become on fieldwork?
Information technology varies. I take visited the Morrison Germination in the USA multiple times, considering this is a focus of my research.
I've been in Wyoming this summer with a big crew of people who have a wide multifariousness of palaeontology backgrounds. Nosotros'll be able to employ our mix of expertise to sympathize the whole surround, not but the dinosaurs.
In that location's a new fossil site in Morocco that I'chiliad really excited almost. I'd honey to go out there and observe new dinosaurs, cement a long-term collaboration with Moroccan sedimentologists and palaeontologists, and hopefully see Moroccan dinosaur cloth staying in Morocco rather than being traded on the commercial marketplace.
I too do fieldwork in the UK. That tends to be on the declension because that'southward where the rocks are exposed.
Is there much to discover in the Great britain?
There is enough to discover. The reason that we don't find more is because it's covered in trees and houses. If information technology wasn't for that, nosotros'd find as many dinosaurs in southern England every bit we practice in Wyoming.
Source: https://www.nhm.ac.uk/discover/how-to-become-a-palaeontologist.html
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