Thirsty Thursday with Paleontologist Tony Martin!

Anthony (Tony) Martin is a Professor of Practice in the Department of Environmental Studies at Emory University, where he has taught geology, paleontology, and environmental science classes for nearly 25 years. He is a paleontologist, geologist, author, public speaker, and artist, and his main research interest is ichnology, the study of plant and animal traces, such as tracks, trails, burrows, nests, and feces. His most recent books are Dinosaurs Without Bones: Dinosaur Lives Revealed by Their Trace Fossils (2014, Pegasus Books) and Life Traces of the Georgia Coast (2013, Indiana University Press), both of which he also illustrated. He also wrote two editions of a popular college textbook, Introduction to the Study of Dinosaurs (2001 and 2006, Wiley-Blackwell) and two shorter books, Trace Fossils of San Salvador (2006) a guidebook on trace fossils of the Bahamas, and El Dinosaurio que Excavo SuMadriguera (2009). He is the co-discoverer of: the only known burrowing dinosaur (Oryctodromeus cubicularis); the oldest known dinosaur burrows, fossil crayfish, and bird tracks in the Southern Hemisphere; the best dinosaur tracksite in southern Australia; as well as fossil insect nests, fish trails, trilobite burrows, worm trails, plant root traces, and other trace fossils from the past 550 million years. He can be followed on Twitter (@Ichnologist) and his Web site and blog are at: www.georgialifetraces.com.

Photo taken by Ruth Schowalter.

Question 1: You are one of my heroes in the field of paleontology. Who did you admire growing up?

I’m one of your heroes? Really? Thanks for having such low standards! No, seriously, I’m very flattered, so thanks for the ego boost.

You’re absolutely right to ask about people I admired as a kid, because good role models are crucial for cultivating our interests at an early age. For instance, neither of my parents went to college, and I grew up in a low-income, blue-collar family. Yet they greatly valued higher education and I’ll always be grateful to them for supporting my early interests in natural history.

What’s funny about growing up in the 1960s, though, was how few famous paleontologists were around to admire back then. Jack Horner, Bob Bakker, Karen Chin, Paul Sereno, and other dinosaur paleontologists we all know about now weren’t on TV until much later. Sure, I’d read a few books about Roy Chapman Andrews and thought he was the kind of adventurer-scientist I’d like to be some day. But I also was interested in extant animals and their behavior.

So instead of paleontology programs, I watched Wild Kingdom religiously, and the person I wanted to be was Jim Fowler. He got to outrun grizzly bears and wrestle anacondas while Marlin Perkins stayed safely back in the jeep. Two other role models who stood out for me as a kid were Jacques Cousteau and Amelia Earhart, neither of who were paleontologists.

For Cousteau, I remember watching his TV specials, which encouraged me to later study marine biology, despite growing up in land-locked Indiana and not seeing an ocean until I was 21 years old. Amelia Earhart might seem like a strange choice to mention as a hero for someone who later became a paleontologist, but it fits when you know I had a wander lust building inside me. (Let me repeat the words“land-locked Indiana.”) When I was about 10 years old, I read a biography of Earhart and was awestruck by this amazing explorer, who also overcame all sorts of societal barriers. Her accomplishments made me think, “Hey, she did it, so can I!”

Photo taken by Ruth Schowalter.

Question 2: At what age did you get inspired to pursue a career in paleontology? 

Surprisingly, I didn’t start thinking about becoming a paleontologist until late in college. I’d taken a good number of biology classes and a few geology classes, but didn’t realize that I could combine those two disciplines until I took an invertebrate paleontology class in my senior year. I liked it so much that I started thinking about doing graduate studies in geology and paleontology.

One of my undergrad professors advised me to try Miami University (Ohio) for my master’s degree in geology, which I did. I thought I’d stop at a master’s and go work for an oil company, but my thesis advisor, John Pope, steered me toward working on a Ph.D. I was then lucky enough to work on my Ph.D. in the late 1980s with Robert (Bob) Frey at the University of Georgia. He was one of the best ichnologists in the world at the time, and I ended up being his last Ph.D. student before he died in 1992.

I’m still pursuing a career as a paleontologist and plan to be one some day. If I ever grow up, that is.

Question 3: What was your favorite dinosaur growing up? What dinosaur is your favorite now?

My favorite dinosaur was Allosaurus from the Late Jurassic Morrison Formation. Most kids nowadays would probably say “Tyrannosaurus rex.” But there was something about Allosaurus that appealed more to me. It was a compact (but still big), no-nonsense predator that would have scared the bejesus out of me if it came back to life. Tyrannosaurus, Apatosaurus, Triceratops, and Stegosaurus were also in the running for my favorite dinosaurs, but the one large plastic model dinosaur I had in my room was Allosaurus.

My favorite dinosaur now is Oryctodromeus cubicularis, the so-called “burrowing dinosaur” from the mid-Cretaceous of Montana. Yeah, I know, there’s some major bias behind that choice, considering that I was lucky enough to have co-named it. But it would be in my top five dinosaurs anyway because of how it was found in its burrow. You don’t get those body- and trace-fossil combinations very often in the fossil record, and it’s especially rare with dinosaurs.

Photo taken by Ruth Schowalter.

Question 4: Paleontology is such a diverse field these days involving many disciplines. What advice would you give to an aspiring paleontologist today?

Get outside, read lots, draw often, and do math. Repeat. But just to avoid being too simplistic, let me elaborate a little more on each of those.

Getting outside often and being comfortable in outdoor settings in a variety of conditions is still absolutely necessary for success in paleontology. More and more paleontology is being done inside museums and labs, and using computers, laser scanners, CT scanners, and other fancy equipment. But unless you get into the field often to directly experience geology and paleontology, you’ll end up with an incomplete understanding of these as sciences.

Reading helps you to become a better paleontologist so you can learn how people express themselves and communicate ideas. And I don’t mean just reading what people say about paleontology, but also science in general, as well as history, literature, art, and other topics. I even read fiction and poetry to better appreciate how stories are constructed and told: what works, what doesn’t? One of the best ways to learn how to write well is to read good writing. Along those lines, don’t waste your time reading bad writing.

Drawing helps you to observe, and even if you’re not very good at drawing at first, you get better with practice. It’s also not about being a “good artist” (whatever that is), but about seeing more through the process of drawing. This is an invaluable skill both in the field and in a museum or lab setting.

Last but not least, you have to do math. I take lots of measurements when in the field and do a fair amount of statistics in my work. So try to quantify whenever possible. If it can be measured, measure it, and then ask yourself how those numbers matter.

Photo by Jim Whitcraft.

Question 5: Going to college these days and then on to grad school has become a daunting task.  Many people are unaware of how long it takes to make it to the finish line. The rewards are great, but what would you say to someone pursuing professional studies after college?

“Finish line” is a great metaphor to use, because getting a degree in college or grad school seems like running a long-distance race. Speaking as a former long-distance runner, I can tell you when that race gets the most discouraging: when other people drop out. So you can’t think about doing that yourself, or look behind you, or dwell on how far you’ve gone. Instead, you have to keep looking ahead and not give up.

For someone pursuing professional studies after college nowadays, all I can say is to be prepared to do something different from what you originally thought you’d do. Academia is a brutish and emotionally demeaning environment right now, especially for anyone who’s under the illusion that they’re going to turn out exactly like their mentors. You know, getting a Ph.D., securing a plum job at a prestigious institution, pulling in million-dollar grants, running a lab with mincing and prancing minions, giving TED talks, all while accompanied by a Sheila E.soundtrack.

The reality is that fewer than 25% of all positions at U.S. universities are tenure-track ones, state and federal government institutions have cut back on science-related jobs, and museums are having a tough time funding research or educational positions, too. So be ready to have Plans B, C, and D for when you graduate. (Just skip Plan F, though. That’s never a good plan.) In other words, don’t put all of your eggs in one nest structure.

Regardless of what you do, make sure you really enjoy the experience of grad school and have a great time with the people who are learning with you. I have incredibly fond memories of grad school, of finally being with “my tribe” of people who likewise were enthused about learning geology and paleontology. Because of this camaraderie, I always feel at home whenever in the field with other paleontologists and geologists, or when visiting a geology department and going to our professional meetings.

Photo taken by Ruth Schowalter.

Question 6: What was or is your favorite research project? What are some of your current projects?

My favorite research project? Tough call! It’s a tie between two coasts, in Georgia (USA) and Victoria (Australia).These two coasts have fueled my passion for exploring, searching, and discovering all sorts of cool traces and trace fossils while in the field.

For instance, my book Life Traces of the Georgia Coast (2013) involved studying a wide range of modern plant, invertebrate, and vertebrate traces of the Georgia barrier islands, with field work stretching out over about 15 years. The main purpose of that book was to help everyone realize how much information can be gleaned from modern traces and applied to fossil ones. And by everyone, I mean way more than just paleontologists and geologists, as it’s written for educated lay people, too. I’m very proud of that book, and of the places that made it real.

In Victoria, I started studying Cretaceous trace fossils there on the coast in 2006, and spent about a month walking along the Victoria coast in 2010 looking for more trace fossils, and have made a few discoveries during my times there (such as this, this, and this). It also doesn’t hurt that both the Georgia and Victoria coasts are gorgeous, and the people in each place are warm and gracious. So yeah, it’s a tie.

Right now I’m trying to finish up a few projects on traces made by a variety of critters in sediments ranging from the Ediacaran Period to today. For example, I’m writing a paper about a few Cretaceous dinosaur tracks from Australia that have been in a museum collection there since the 1980s, but never described. After that, I’m finishing a study of Cretaceous invertebrate burrows at a world-famous Cretaceous dinosaur tracksite in Texas, trying to figure out how these burrows relate to the original environments where the dinosaurs walked.

I also have a couple of “fishy” studies to do, too, about trails made by fish fins when they swam or otherwise moved on a lake bottom. For modern traces, a few colleagues of mine and I have done GIS mappings and ground-penetrating radar (GPR) on gopher-tortoise burrows and alligator dens on the Georgia barrier islands. We really need to publish on these, as they’re really cool examples of how paleontologists can use modern examples of large vertebrate burrows to better recognize and understand fossil ones.

Question 7: Jurassic Park was the movie I remember as a kid that fueled my passion for dinosaurs. What was your most memorable movie?

As a kid, I loved King Kong, Godzilla, The Beast of 20,000 Fathoms, Creature of the Black Lagoon, and just about any movie that had primeval monsters in it. But probably my favorite movie was The Valley of Gwangi (1969). I mean, cowboys and dinosaurs: how could it get any better than that? Along those lines, I also remember watching The Beast of Hollow Mountain (1956), which even involved cowboys tracking an Allosaurus. That movie might have even planted a seed in my mind that I could track dinosaurs and interpret behavior from their traces.

Photo taken by Ruth Schowalter.

Question 8:  I remember meeting my first professional paleontologist.  Do you remember the first paleontologist you ever met? Were you a nervous wreck?  

The first paleontologist I met was John Pope at Miami University, which was when I visited the Miami campus in 1982 just before going there for grad school. He was very nice, which I think made it a lot easier when I met other paleontologists later. He was one of the world’s experts on Ordovician brachiopods and other fossils in the area around Cincinnati (Ohio), and gave me a great foundation in paleontology early on in graduate school.

Question 9: Dinosaurs and the animals that lived at the same time as them were amazing creatures. Why do you feel dinosaurs continue to fascinate us?

One of the best explanations I’ve read about why children and adults alike are so fascinated by dinosaurs and similar large, extinct animals is because “They’re big and scary, but they’re dead.” Still, what’s happening now with dinosaurs is incredibly exciting, as much of it revolves around the realization that they’re not all big, scary, and dead: they’re still around as birds! Watch a Carolina wren at the bird feeder, and you’re observing dinosaur behavior. I’ve also tracked big flightless birds, like cassowaries, emus, and rheas, which feels very much like connecting to that pre-human past.

Question 10: What is your favorite time period?

Right now it’s the Cretaceous, with most of my projects connecting to Cretaceous trace fossils. But I used to be an Ordovician kind of guy, having done both my M.S. and Ph.D. theses on Ordovician rocks and fossils, and I still really enjoy studying Paleozoic trace and body fossils whenever I can. And of course I spend a lot of my time in the present, so the Neogene Period figures pretty prominently in my life, too.

Photo taken by Ruth Schowalter.

Question 11: The time span in which the dinosaurs lived in was huge. How do paleontologists remember all that information from such a vast era? Do paleontologists focus on one particular subject?

Remembering geologic time units, fossils, and earth history in general requires practice mixed with humility. For example, even though I can rattle off the geologic time eras and periods, and I teach my students to do the same, I still get stumped by the stages of the periods. There are just too many time units for us to remember them all. So it makes sense that most paleontologists pick a particular time interval or group of related fossils for their studies.

Question 12: So you are a geology man, like me. Why is geology such an important subject to know for studying paleontology among other subjects? For example, a lot of people are unaware of how much coursework in the field of geology is used for studying dinosaurs. For example, GIS, Geographic Information Systems, is a tool and course being taught more and more in geology departments these days. This system is very effective in mapping a dig site.

That’s a great point! You never know when the courses you take in college and graduate school will come in handy later as a paleontologist.

For example, I took graduate-level courses in hydrogeology, geochemistry, clay mineralogy, structural geology, geophysics, and geostatistics. All of these classes helped make me a better geologist and paleontologist. Think of a fossil that had groundwater percolate through it, which chemically altered that fossil or the clays around it. Then think about how the rocks holding that fossil might have been folded and faulted, and how those folds and faults go below the ground surface. Lastly, when you gather numbers about that fossil or others like it, how do you describe these or compare samples to one another? The classes I listed address all of those potential facets of a fossil found in the field.

Earlier I also mentioned projects with colleagues on gopher-tortoise burrows and alligator dens. We’ve used both GIS and GPR to study those, methods I never would have expected to use in my study of traces, but here we are.

Photo taken by Ruth Schowalter.

Question 13: You have a new book out, Dinosaurs Without Bones: Dinosaur Lives Revealed by their Trace Fossils.  Absolute brilliant read and one of my new favorites! Can you give a brief insight about what inspired you to write this amazing book? Brief, only because I want out readers to explore this fascinating book for themselves! Tease us Anthony!

Thanks for the compliments, and I promise to be a total book tease about it!

I was inspired to write this book because I felt ichnology – the study of traces – deserves a lot more recognition and respect as a science. And what better way to teach about ichnology than through one of the most popular of science subjects, dinosaurs?

The main premise of the book is that if all of the dinosaur bones in the world vanished tomorrow, we would still know a lot about dinosaurs. Even better, I argue that dinosaur trace fossils are often better than their bones for telling us where dinosaurs lived and how dinosaurs behaved.

The book starts with a dramatic (but fictional) story that takes place in the Late Cretaceous Period – about 70 million years ago – that then connects to real dinosaur trace fossils. This story thus gives readers a preview of what they’ll learn in the rest of the book about dinosaur tracks, nests, burrows, tooth marks, gastroliths, feces, and other trace fossils that non-bird dinosaurs made during their 160-million-year history. A special bonus is a chapter on bird traces, titled “Tracking the Dinosaurs Among Us.”

Something else people should enjoy about the book is a central insert that includes plenty of my photos and original illustrations of dinosaur trace fossils. Yes, I illustrated my own book: remember what I said about the importance of drawing as a skill in paleontology? Some of my drawings are also of “speculative ichnology,” depicting traces that haven’t been found (yet), but demonstrate how you could interpret certain dinosaur behaviors from them. For instance, what if a dinosaur puked: what sort of traces would show that behavior?

Question 14: The new book is amazing.  Your amazing and clever wit shines through every page. Communicating geology to the general public can be a daunting task.  I believe there should be more students, graduate students, and professionals communicating with the general public about science.  What are your thoughts on "some" over opinionated writers out there that haven't paid their dues in the academic world?  What are your thoughts on communicating science to the general public?

Thanks for the compliments about my “amazing and clever wit,” which also happens to produce a lot of groan-worthy puns. But that’s part of the fun! I’ve always been a jokester and just can’t stay totally serious for very long, especially for the length of a typical book. Even the most arid of my books, Introduction to the Study of Dinosaurs, has humor sprinkled throughout it for those students who stayed awake long enough to read it.

You reminded me how another reviewer of Dinosaurs Without Bones said, “Martin’s writing makes clear that he spends a lot of time with college students.” This was meant as a criticism, but came from a writer who (as far as I know) has never taught a college course. In contrast, I’ve taught college students for more than 30 years. But hey, most film critics have never written, acted in, or directed a film, either. So I try to consider the background of someone making judgments about my work and react accordingly, which is mostly to shrug, laugh, and carry on.

Given a choice, my approach to science communication is always going to be more like Mel Brooks and less like Werner Herzog; or for science writing, more like Mary Roach and less like Richard Dawkins. This connects to what you’re advocating, that more graduate students and professionals should be writing blogs or otherwise making their science more public. This helps scientists find their own voices, ones that fit their personalities. Are you a really serious person? That should come out in your blog. Are you more of a goofball, like me? That should come out in your outreach, too. It’s a challenge to communicate geology and other sciences effectively, but it should also be done in a way that’s true to who you are as a scientist and a person.

Photo taken by Ruth Schowalter.

Question 15: What do you like to do for fun? Any hobbies outside of paleontology?

Tracking is my main, fun outdoor hobby, although I also like biking and hiking. If indoors, cooking is one of my favorite activities, along with reading nonfiction and fiction. Oh, and drinking good beers: I’m lucky enough to live in the Decatur-Atlanta area, which is the good-beer epicenter of Georgia. Not incidentally, I’m a firm believer that this activity is essential for much producing good geology and paleontology.

Photo taken by Ruth Schowalter.

Question 16: Ever been to Jersey?  If so, what do you like about our hair gel state?

Yes, I’ve been to Jersey three times, and all for ichnological reasons! Back in the late 1990s and early 2000s, I took three courses from The Tracker School in New Jersey, including their Advanced Tracking and Expert Tracking. These courses were invaluable learning experiences for me, because I desperately needed to learn more practical skills in tracking to augment my “book learning” of vertebrate tracks and other traces. So I have great memories of New Jersey, almost all of which came from tracking critters in the Pine Barrens. That’s a heck of a lot better than hair gels, spray-on tans, and “Which exit?” jokes.

Thank you so much for your time!

You’re very welcome! Thanks so much for asking such great questions and giving me the opportunity to share my answers with whoever wants to learn more about paleontology, geology, and, of course, the greatest science of all, ichnology.

Tap Talk Tuesday with Lee Hall!

I am currently a paleontological consultant working out of the Los Angeles area. In 2011 I graduated from Montana State University with my B. Sc. in Paleontology. My job involves a combination of research, writing and field monitoring throughout southern California's deserts and other fossil-laden places. Consulting is a different world than academic paleontology, but it is an interesting and enriching experience. I also maintain some personal research projects on my own time, and I am happy to continue to contribute to the scientific literature. I think 5-year-old Lee would be happy to know I've made it this far.

Striking a pose with a cast of "Stan" at the Discovery Science Center in Anaheim, California. (Photo provided by Lee Hall.)

Question 1: You are currently involved in the field of paleontology. Who did you admire growing up in regards to this fascinating field?

It's kind of weird, but I didn't really have an idol as a kid. In a way, I admired books. Until I started working with museums, everything I knew about science was derived from reading. One of my favorite books was "Hunting Dinosaurs" by Louie Psihoyos. It was (and still is) a great look at the diverse research topics in dinosaur paleontology. That book introduced me to a lot of the scientists who were answering cool questions about dinosaurs. At that point I went from just wanting to find fossils to wanting to be like the people in that book.

Question 2: At what age did you get inspired to pursue a career in paleontology?

I got serious about it in high school, and luck played a decent part. I was always the nerdy kid who knew about dinosaurs growing up. I thought I'd just "be a paleontologist" when I grew up. In a small Great Plains farm town. We had one museum with fossils: the W. H. Over museum. I think there was a cast of Archelon on display and maybe an ammonite or two- not much. My hometown did have a small college and there were a couple of paleontologists there: Dr. Gary Johnson, who studied Permian sharks, and Dr. Tim Heaton, who worked on sea cave faunas in southeast Alaska. When I was a freshman, I interviewed them for a big research project for my English class. Later that year there was a visiting speaker for Earth Science Week- Dr. Jack Horner from the Museum of the Rockies. He was kind enough to invite me to work on his field crews in Montana for the next summer. At that point, I got pretty serious about it.

Question 3: What was your favorite dinosaur growing up? What dinosaur is your favorite now?

Growing up? Probably T. rex, but my favorite dinosaur toy was a crappy Styracosaurus- one with sharp teeth and practically no frill. I think it was orange. Now I would have to say that Styracosaurus is my favorite dinosaur. That head is crazy!

Excavating "T-tops" the Triceratops in 2011 from the Hell Creek. We first found the squamosal bone, the large blade-like lateral bone of the frill. While excavating around it, the syncervical (the fused first vertebrae of the neck) was discovered. This site was notorious for the long hike it took to get there. Another Triceratops site found later that summer was nicknamed the "Not 2 mile Trike" site. (Photo provided by Lee Hall.)

Question 4: Paleontology is such a diverse field these days involving many disciplines. What advice would you give to an aspiring paleontologist today?

Paleontology is a serious scientific discipline. You will have to take a lot of technical geology and biology courses. It isn't just about finding dinosaur bones. Should you choose to pursue paleontology as a career, be prepared to work very hard and make a lot of sacrifices. Be an opportunist and jump at any chance you can get to learn or try something new. Those skills will make you or break you in the long run. Above all else, work as hard as you can.

Question 5: Were there any subjects in college you dreaded?

Calculus. I was a terrible math student. I had to take it 5 times at two different schools before I passed it. Looking back, I'll say this about calculus: the 'calculus' stuff isnt' the hard part. It's the algebra. It's always the algebra. Once my algebra got better, calculus was no problem. Algebra is to calculus as instructions are to LEGO sets. You're going to have a hard time without knowing how the guts work.

Question 6: What was or is your favorite research project? What are some of your current projects?

I've really enjoyed working on a two-parter project with my friend Denver Fowler (who is currently pursuing a PhD at Montana State) and my fiancee Ashley Fragomeni (an assistant curator at the Raymond Alf Museum of Paleontology in Claremont, CA. Oh, and she's an educator at the LA Museum of Natural History. And the Page Museum at the La Brea Tar Pits. She does a lot.) A couple of years ago, Denver and I published a paper about sauropod hindclaws. We were assessing the validity of something called the substrate grip hypothesis, which suggested that the unique form of sauropod hind claws lended them to acting sort of like cleats in mud. We compared this to the scratch-digging hypothesis, which suggested that the morphology of hindfoot claws in sauropods was more useful for digging, and perhaps for excavating nests. Fast forward to this past year, myself Ashley and Denver have been working on part 2 of that study, which is essentially a follow up looking through the fossil trackway record for evidence of these behaviors. It's really very interesting! I've also been working with John and Kari Scannella (of Montana State) on a project involving horned dinosaurs, and it has allowed me to do some research into pathologies. Really gross, and really fascinating.

Question 7: Jurassic Park was the movie I remember as a kid that fueled my passion for dinosaurs. What was your most memorable movie?

Well I'm a huge fan of Star Trek, and one of the few movies I got to see in theaters as a kid was the last of the original crew's films (Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country). But I think Jurassic Park was one of the most fun movie experiences of my childhood. It certainly didn't hurt my enthusiasm for fossils and natural history, and I benefited from the flood of paleontology books and media that inundated television, magazines and book stores for years afterwards. I must have seen it half a dozen times. I'd scrape together pennies and nickels to buy a ticket, and the college kid at the ticket kiosk would take a look at the pile of change and just wave me in. Then I'd use the change to buy popcorn and candy.

The freshly jacketed syncervicals of a Triceratops, excavated from Montana's Hell Creek formation. (Photo provided by Lee Hall.)

Question 8: I remember meeting my first professional paleontologist. Do you remember the first paleontologist you ever met? Were you a nervous wreck?

I was a little nervous. My earliest recollection was with Dr. Gary Johnson at the University of South Dakota. I was amazed by his collection of shark spines, teeth and bones and his office smelled richly of pipe tobacco. He was very nice to me, and very patient with my questions. I remember he had framed fantasy art hanging at the top of his walls sort of ringing the room. They were vivid, stylized depictions of pterosaurs and saber toothed cats, and *ahem* huntresses. My first impression with a paleontologist was pretty unforgettable.

Question 9: Dinosaurs and the animals that lived at the same time as them were amazing creatures. Why do you feel dinosaurs continue to fascinate us?

I don't want to over analyze this question, so the meat of it is this. Our brains love to categorize organisms: food, venomous, predator, fast/slow, bitey, etc. We also recognize that skeletons are direct evidence of an animal having been very much alive at one point, so we can look at a dinosaur and our brains try to fit it into these categories. But we are left to our imaginations to fill in the gaps. It's a very strange place for your brain to be caught- sort of back in time but in the present, imagining behaviors and noises and colors all at once. You ultimately feel that they would surely have eaten you or stomped you or impaled you in life, but those fears are rendered inert by the fact that they're extinct. And that's fascinating to us hominids.

Question 10: What is your favorite time period?

I love the cretaceous. No contest. It's where I've spent most of my time in the field. There's no place like home. On the opposite end of that spectrum is quaternary alluvium. For a dinosaur paleontologist, it's like being forced to visit your grandma's weird friend's house. Everything is different. And it smells funny.

Question 11: Coelophysis is my favorite dinosaur from the sites I work in ! What is your favorite dinosaur from your fieldwork sites?

I've spent a lot of time in the Hell Creek formation, and I really love finding Triceratops bones. They're just cool. Frills, horns, and beaks- I remember one day I was prospecting and walked up on a small mudstone knob. I froze in place because a Triceratops skull was laying on its side right in front of me. Just like that. I could see all the bones: nasal horn, postorbital horns, orbit, jugal. Nothing beats an experience like that.

Question 12: Geology, among many disciplines of study, is such a vital subject when studying the past. Why do you feel this background is important to know when hunting dinosaurs?

Understanding geology allows you to give fossils a time and a place to exist. Rocks give you environments. They give you events. They give you time. Once you realize that you can build a much more complete image of our past Earth. Fossils can be a very powerful tool for understanding how evolution works and for examining its processes and directions. Or they can sit in a foyer. Point being, to get the fully rounded picture you need to look at the rocks. Being a paleontologist is like trying to put together a book whose pages have been dropped from a plane and scattered across the desert for years, bleaching, fading and tearing. You'll never get all those pages back, but if you're going to call yourself a paleontologist and a scientist you'd better never stop trying to find them.

John Scannella (in black) and I assess the logistics of flipping a large jacket at the "Ducky Tail" site. This specimen consisted of most of the legs and tail of an Edmontosaurus from the Hell Creek. It was very cool because the neural spines of the caudal vertebrae preserved a string of pathologies that extended over quite a few of the bones. We ended up flipping the jacket with human power and flew it out with a Huey helicopter. (Photo provided by Lee Hall.)

Question 13: Where can our audience go to learn more about your work and support what you do?

If people want to read some stuff about me they can check out my (unprofessionally maintained) website at: http://sites.google.com/site/leehallpaleo
I spent quite a few years working at the Museum of the Rockies and Montana State University (Shout out to Drs. David Varricchio, Frankie Jackson and Jim Schmitt!) and I detail some of that work on my website.

I have a twitter account (doesn't everyone now?) @paleeoguy

I'll also be gladly accepting offers for fully funded graduate program opportunities if anyone is interested in a self-motivated guy with a BSc in paleontology, 10+ years of field experience and a small (but independently growing!) list of publications (See you at SVP).

Question 14: What else do you enjoy? What other interesting hobbies do you have?

I love making prop replicas. I made a pretty cool Ghostbusters outfit back in college. I had the whole thing, the pack, the suit, blinking lights. It was legit. If I had a garage I'd probably always be in there trying to put something together. As it stands, I'm currently in a 1 bedroom apartment in Los Angeles and spend a lot of time out in the desert. No room, no time. Someday I'd like to really get back into it. Have I said that I like Star Trek? I've never been to a convention, but I have seen a few actors around LA who played roles in the various TV shows. I have a cat.

We used helicopters to remove large fossil jackets from the field. Jackets would be lifted, rolled or wiggled into a cargo net and a chopper would fly in and drop a cable to pick up the goods. One of us would clamp the net cable to the chopper cable, give the pilot a thumbs up, and get out of the way! (Photo provided by Lee Hall.)

Question 15: Have you ever been to New Jersey?

No! I was actually born in Maryland and lived on the east coast until I was 5 or 6, then the family moved to South Dakota. Is the Haddonfield marl pit gone? I've always thought it would be cool to see the approximate area where Cope and Marsh last parted on amiable terms. Come to think of it, my college roommate was from Piscataway and his mom would send us cheesecake from a local bakery. That's the closest I've come!

Help Us Fund Summer Dinosaur Track Research!

Hello Dear Readers!

Regardless of the snow that is on the ground up here in northeast British Columbia as I type, this is the time of year our planning kicks into high gear for this summer's field season. We have an exciting new dinosaur ichnology project (for new readers, ichnology is tracks, traces, and other "signs" left by dinosaurs other than their body parts), thanks to the sharp-eyed residents of the Peace Region who reported the site to us, and the guarantee that we can operate this year.

Even though I'm office-bound this summer (thesis chapter writing), I'm still hard at work ensuring that the field season can happen for my Research Team. As a Museum Of Unusual Size (MOUS), we struggle every year to not only convince the Powers That Be that our institution (the Peace Region Palaeontology Research Centre) is a worthy project for conserving, archiving, researching, and interpreting British Columbia's fossil heritage, we have to justify WHY research should be funded. We have no access to research funding through provincial or federal means. We always approach the natural resource companies operating in the region for potential partnerships, and are usually given the same rebuff: "Our head office decides funding levels based on population size. You live in a small population center. You will get a small amount." Trying to convince them that this project is regional and provincial in scale does not make an impression.
This year we're trying something different. Two days ago I launched an Indiegogo campaign to crowd fund the research for our Williston Lake Tracksite (link to the "Research Dinosaur Tracks in Northeast BC, Canada!" campaign site here.)

There's good background information on the campaign page, but I'll also provide a summary here.

The new Williston Lake Tracksite is a large, flat exposure of the Gething Formation (Early Cretaceous, approximately 115 million years old). Dinosaurs in BC - and specifically dinosaur footprints - have a long, but little known history in the province. Tthe cultural history of many British Columbia residents of European descent (there may be First Nations historical recognition for the tracks - still hunting out info) has long assumed that "there are no dinosaurs in BC, they're found in Alberta" - I heard this so often growing up in BC that I wanted to scream. However, dinosaur prints were first found in northeast BC by geologist F. H. McLearn in 1922-23. Paleontologist Charles M. Sternberg led the first paleontology expedition to the Peace Region in 1930.

C. M. Sternberg named many new ichnotaxa (footprint types) from the Peace River Canyon Gething Formation sites in 1932 and on. This was the first extensively published description of Cretaceous tracks as a footprint community (ichnofauna). Several ichnotaxa were named:

Amblydactylus gethingi - here's a footprint and handprint pair from a different tracksite, not the original Sternberg locality.  Amblydactylus is thought to be made by a dinosaur related to Iguanodon.

Medium-sized herbivorous dinosaur print Gypsichnites pacensis (image not Sternberg's original site):

The small theropod footprint Irenichnites gracilis. This specimen is not from the original Sternberg localities:

Medium-sized theropod footprint Columbosauripus ungulatus (image not from Sternberg's sites):

Large-sized (and likely allosaurid) theropod prints Irenesauripus (from Sternberg 1932):

Last, but certainly not least, the ankylosaur footprints of Tetrapodosaurus borealis (image not from the Sternberg localities, but from our Flatbed Creek Trackway Tour site):

Later, Currie (1981) named what was, at the time, the oldest bird footprints known, and the second
bird footprints named from North America: Aquatilavipes swiboldae.

From Currie (1981).

There are two things I'm sure you have noticed by now:
1. The Peace River Canyon tracksites are important. Several type specimens come from there, and they are an important part of not only British Columbia's history, but the history of paleontology. The Province of British Columbia agreed, and in 1930 the Peace River Canyon site was designated as a Provincial Heritage Resource. Cool, right?
2. Most of the images are not from the original Peace River Canyon localities. Why? The Peace River Canyon localities, a Provincial Heritage Resource, are now flooded under the "Dinosaur Lake" reservoir of the Peace Canyon Dam. Despite a huge salvage effort by the Provincial Museum of Alberta (now the Royal Alberta Museum), led by paleontologist Dr. Philip Currie between 1976-1979 that recovered over 90 footprints, mapped 1000 prints, and in total documented 1700 prints, the sites and the in-place tracks were lost to future science, science outreach, and tourism opportunities.

This new site, the Williston Lake Tracksite, is the first large-scale track-bearing surface from the Gething Formation that has been seen since the flooding of the Peace River Canyon. We have this fantastic opportunity to continue Sternberg's and Currie's work.

First, we simply need to documenting the site. It won't really be simple: there's A LOT of site to be cleared (in yellow):

We need to map all of the footprints in place as they appear on the surface. We need to take latex and silicone molds of significant footprints and trackways. We also need to 3D-digitize the ENTIRE site.

We can take an entire tracksite back to the lab with us in 3D-digital replica format. Image from McCrea et al. (2014b).

Why do we need to do this?

We need to know a) what track types are there, b) what proportion each track type is in this slice of the paleo-ecosystem, and c) update or revise Sternberg's footprint identifications (as needed) with our advanced understanding of how footprints work - Sternberg did a great job in 1932, but our understanding of footprints has increased and changed a lot since then, and since the original Sternberg sites are inaccessible, we have this golden opportunity to research a site that is as close to what Sternberg saw as possible.

We can't miss this scientific opportunity. This is why we need your help. Some of the tracks are exposed, and we know from experience that the longer tracks are exposed, the more likely they are to be damaged by weathering (slow) and human selfishness (fast). We need to get in, uncover, document, and securely cover the site this summer. To do this safely and efficiently we need to replace our old equipment (truck, all-terrain vehicle) and pick up a new item: a secure cargo trailer in which we can store gear (we've had all of our sites robbed) and store specimens. We also need to feed our crew of staff and volunteers.

Once this site is documented, we hope that it can one day be used as a science-based tourism initiative. Our research this summer will be the basis for all of the exciting stories we'll discover about Early Cretaceous dinosaurs. We want to bring the Peace River Canyon tracks from their watery obscurity, if only by proxy, and tell their story to the world.

You can help us tell that story. The most important way you can help is to share the "Research Dinosaur Tracks in Northeast BC, Canada!" site with anyone interested in history, heritage, dinosaurs, and science education. If you have the means, we would greatly appreciate any contributions.

I know we can do this.


References

Currie PJ. 1981. Bird footprints from the Gething Formation (Aptian, Lower Cretaceous) of northeastern British Columbia, Canada. Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology 1(3-4):257-264.

McCrea RT, Buckley LG, Plint AG, Currie PJ, Haggart JW, Helm CW, Pemberton SG. 2014a. A review of vertebrate track-bearing formations from the Mesozoic and earliest Cenozoic of western Canada, with a description of a new theropod ichnospecies and reassignment of an avian ichnospecies. New Mexico Museum of Natural History Bulletin 62: 5-94.

McCrea RT, Buckley LG, Farlow JO, Lockley MG, Currie PJ, et al. 2014b. A ‘Terror of Tyrannosaurs’: The First Trackways of Tyrannosaurids and Evidence of Gregariousness and Pathology in Tyrannosauridae. PLoS ONE 9(7): e103613. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0103613

Sternberg CM. 1932. Dinosaur tracks from Peace River, British Columbia. National Museum of Canada Bulletin 68:59-85

Geology Go Go Bar!

Please welcome the mineral Galena to the stage.

I'm sure I'll catch a lot of flak for this post, but oh well.  Besides, It's all in good fun.  My background is in geology.  I love paleontology, but in order to do the fun stuff, you need to know the hard stuff also.  University studies can sometimes be tedious.  Everyone has their own unique way of remembering and understanding things.  To give you an insight into where I'm going with this, note the below snapshot from my personal Facebook page.  I've of course omitted the numerous comments and "Likes" in order to respect the privacy of my friends.

Yup, you saw right.  I learned my mineral studies by associating them with dancers.  If it works right?  Well, for me it does.  Anyway, studying can be punishing.  Find what works for you and go for it!

Tap Talk Tuesday with paleontologist Jeff Martz!

During the summer of 2006, I was privileged to have had an amazing professor by the name of Jeffrey Martz via my college in New Mexico. At the time, Jeffrey Martz was a PhD student at Texas Tech University.  Recently, I had the chance to catch up with Dr. Martz and asked him if he would be interested in doing an interview.  He graciously said yes and I was so excited!  I have to say, it is a very surreal feeling to have been taught a geology class on dinosaurs by one of my favorite paleontologists.  Thank you Dr. Martz.  You are an inspiration and a brilliant man.

Photo provided by Jeffrey Martz

Gary: What is a paleontologist and what do they do?

Dr. Jeffrey Martz: A paleontologist is a kind of scientist, and being a scientist is not simply about acquiring knowledge, but about contributing new knowledge by learning things that no one else has learned before.  This is a lot more time-consuming than just reading about someone else’s work, so just knowing a lot about dinosaurs does not make someone a paleontologist.  A paleontologist is also not the same thing as a preparator, which is someone that removes fossils from rock (and a lot of other tasks related to the upkeep of fossils), although one can be both a paleontologist and a preparator.

Paleontologists tend to specialize on a few particular subjects in their research, because research is a very time-consuming process.  When pursuing a research question such as “how did this group of animals evolve,” or “what ancient environments did these animal live in”, you have to collect a lot of information before those questions can be answered.  It takes a lot longer to acquire first-hand knowledge on a subject and write a scientific paper than it does to read one.  As a result, most paleontologists select a few subjects on which they can become experts with more first-hand knowledge than almost anyone.

My own work focuses on the Late Triassic, which lasted from about 235-201 million years ago.  The Triassic Period followed the Permian mass extinction, the largest in the history of life.  As with other periods following mass extinctions, the Triassic was a time of evolutionary radiation, and a lot of strange new groups of animals appeared, including the first dinosaurs, lizards, sphenodontians, frogs, turtles, mammals, and relatives of crocodylians, as well as survivors of the Permian extinction.  Overall, the Triassic fauna was a strange menagerie of old and new groups of animals, most of which would not survive past the end of the period.  Moreover, the ecological changes that occurred during the period had critical consequences for the rest of the Phanerozoic, eliminating some groups of animals and establishing others (including the dinosaurs) who would thrive for the rest of the Mesozoic Era.  Climate change, massive volcanic activity in eastern North America, and at least one major asteroid or comet impact all probably played a part in these ecological changes.

Most of my research focuses on Triassic rocks and fossils in western North America.  One major project is to more closely examine the Chinle Formation and Dockum group, the sedimentary rocks of Late Triassic age that occur throughout Utah, Colorado, Arizona, New Mexico, and Texas.  After leaving Texas Tech, I spent three years working at Petrified Forest National Park in Arizona, collaborating with my friend and colleague Bill Parker on revising the stratigraphy and vertebrate fauna of the Chinle Formation within the park and elsewhere in Arizona.  I have also been working with researchers at the Denver Museum of Nature and Science, Dinosaur Discovery Center in St. George (Utah), and Utah Museum of Natural History to understand how these rocks vary across the region, and what this tells us about changing environments and faunas throughout the Triassic Period.  Additionally, I am also studying the fossils of the Chinle Formation, especially pseudosuchian archosaurs (relatives of crocodylians) and dinosauromorphs (dinosaurs and their close relatives) to understand their evolution throughout the Triassic.

Photo provided by Jeffrey Martz

Gary: What was it like growing up as you put it, a "dinosaur geek"?

Dr. Jeffrey Martz: Like probably the majority of people in this field, I was interested in dinosaurs from an early age.  When I was really little, I went through a phase of drawing cows and horses for a while, and then graduated to dinosaurs and dragons.  Tyrannosaurus rex was always my favorite dinosaur by far, and has never been eclipsed (even though I now have a deeper affection for crocodylian-line archosaurs, since they are what I actually study).

Old stop-motion movies (especially Ray Harryhausen’s) were a major source of inspiration; One Million Years B.C., Beast From 20,000 Fathoms, and Valley of Gwangi are the three I probably remember best.  Gwangi was a particularly convincing creation, and got an amazing amount of screen time for a stop-motion effect. When you know how difficult and time-consuming stop-motion and old school (pre-computer) optical compositing is done, it makes Harryhausen’s work even more incredible.  The brain damage was probably irreparable by the time I was 6 or 7.  I suspect that a lot of vertebrate paleontologists had similar childhoods to people who went into the special effects industry.

Naturally, I read a lot of dinosaur books when I was little as well. Being visually oriented and artistically inclined, I cared more about looking at the pictures than what I learned reading them.  Probably the most important book for encouraging me to retain an interest in paleontology into my adult life was The Dinosaurs, a magnificent book illustrated by William Stout and written by William Service.  I collect copies of the original volume whenever I encounter them, and get Stout to sign them for me whenever I meet him.  I also remember Donald Glut’s Dinosaur Scrapbook fondly, which tied in nicely with my love of both dinosaur movies and dinosaur art.  I hope Glut eventually does a sequel covering the dinosaur pop culture of the past 30 years, or better yet, a humungous two-volume in full color covering everything.

When I was a bit older, I saw Phil Tippet’s work for a television program called Dinosaur that was hosted by Christopher Reeve; it included his amazing short film Prehistoric Beast and a lot of additional stuff he did with other Jurassic and Cretaceous dinosaurs for the program.  His animation has a degree of scientific accuracy, realism, and atmosphere that was unparalleled at the time, and hasn’t really been equaled since; I think there is more drama, tension, realism and beauty in Prehistoric Beast than in all the subsequent BBC and Discovery Channel programs put together.  It reminded me a lot of William Stout’s book. I’d love to see Tippet produce a 1-2 hour cgi dinosaur movie in the same vein as Prehistoric Beast; something that spanned the Mesozoic like the BBC/Discovery Channel shows, but with a cinematic (rather than fake documentary) feel, and without the absurdist melodrama, anthropomorphizing, and lame narration that those shows tend to have.

Tippet of course went on to work as “dinosaur supervisor” for Jurassic Park, the first film in which stop-motion (and go-motion) was replaced pretty much permanently by cgi.  Jurassic Park came out the summer after I graduated from high school.  I saw it in a special showing the evening before it officially opened, and again the following day with a big group of people from the Denver Museum.  It was one of the few movies I’ve seen that felt like it was actually made for people with my particular type of psychosis.

Photo provided by Jeffrey Martz

Gary:  Who are paleontologists you admire?

Dr. Jeffrey Martz: The paleontologists I tend to admire the most are those who are motivated, creative, and practical enough to be highly productive, and yet also decent people.  I’ve drawn a lot of inspiration from them, although I am not always successful at emulating them.  My earliest mentor in vertebrate paleontology was Kenneth Carpenter, who I met while still a high school student in the early 1990s. I met Ken indirectly through a high school social studies teacher named Susan Roberts, who was friends with Richard Stucky at the Denver Museum of Nature and Science (then the Denver Museum of Natural History).  Richard gave me Ken’s phone number, and I was able to arrange to be a student intern in the fossil preparation lab there.

At the time Ken was the chief preparator at the Denver Museum. Ken was someone who was able to juggle a large number of jobs and skill sets and get things done.  He was a fossil preparator who was also participating in the construction of a major exhibit (Prehistoric Journey); his duties included preparing fossils, molding and casting, and welding.  At the same time he was conducting fieldwork during the summer prospecting for and excavating dinosaurs, which requires a lot of knowledge about geology, fossil excavation, local bureaucracy, and running a field camp for a dozen or so people.  Ken is also involved in various research projects, and produces a large volume of scientific papers.

William Parker, the park paleontologist at Petrified Forest National Park, is also someone I have a lot of admiration for.  Bill has also been a good friend for over 10 years.  Bill is someone who is extremely motivated and patient, and very good at figuring out how to use the resources and political machinery available to him to accomplish what he wants to get done.  When Bill first went to work for Petrified Forest, it was a temporary summer position to locate fossil localities in the park.  He made himself indispensible and never left.  Ten years later, “park paleontologist” has become a permanent position because of him, and he has produced a massive research program in which he orchestrates numerous institutions undertaking multiple geology and paleontology projects within the park, as well as sometimes acting as temporary head of two divisions within the park.  Bill has been able to do all of this and generate a great deal of respect for himself within the vertebrate paleontology community, even though he only has a master’s degree, which PhDs often misguidedly look down on.  In addition to all this, he is currently pursuing a doctorate at the University of Texas at Austin while juggling both his job and a family.

I was certainly nervous the first time I met Richard Stucky and Ken Carpenter at the Denver Museum of Natural History, but this wears off pretty quickly.  Most vertebrate paleontologists are unpretentious and easygoing people; this is a field people stay in because they enjoy it, and it shows.  Paleontologists have faults, like to have fun, and have a history of doing stupid and inexplicable things, just like the rest of humanity.  If you don’t believe me, go to conferences, talk to people at parties, and watch what happens when they have had enough to drink.  You will learn the truth soon enough.

Photo provided by Jeffrey Martz

Gary: What does it take to become a paleontologist?

Dr. Jeffrey Martz: If you want to be a paleontologist, you will probably be in school for quite a while.   It is possible to learn to do scientific research and papers without a degree of any kind, but the more degrees you have, the more jobs you will be eligible for.  Most paleontologists with permanent jobs teach at universities, and it is virtually impossible to get a professorship without a doctorate.

At the undergraduate level, your primary purpose is to acquire knowledge, learn how research and scientific thinking work, and if possible get a head start on making connections you will really need to be making as a graduate student.  Paleontology requires an extremely broad knowledge base, being essentially the bastard child of biology and geology.  When I first started my undergraduate degree, I was just a zoology major; I later pursued studies in geology, and realized too late that I really should have double majored.  I didn’t take quite the right combination of classes to get a geology minor, but I took so many upper division courses that I almost got a second bachelor’s degree; I even instructed some labs for physical geology in my junior and senior years.  I was fortunate in that CSU has excellent biology and geology programs.  It doesn’t hurt to take a few germane anthropology classes either (e.g. paleopathology, paleoanthropology, and field archaeology). 

If you go to a university that does not have a straight up paleontology program with classes and professors specializing in vertebrate paleontology, you will need to educate yourself.  Popular science books are a good start, but you need to start learning how to read scientific papers as well.  It’s a bit like learning to read Shakespeare; the language is befuddling at first, but you eventually pick it up.  Learn what all those weird and complex terms mean.

Remembering all of this information is not as difficult as it might seem; people have an amazing capacity for packing in obscure facts and information, especially when they find it interesting.  Any sports fan or geek can certainly understand this; think about football fans that can give you detailed information on a player’s record, or geeks who know the name of every marginal character in the Star Wars movies, or the production history to every episode of Star Trek.  Paleontologists often come from a solid geek childhood that included collecting information on dinosaurs (or for that matter, Star Wars and Star Trek) from an early age, and I suspect this makes them good at collecting facts.

If you go on to graduate school, keep in mind that you are not just acquiring knowledge anymore, but building toward a career.  Paleontology is a field with few jobs and little money.  You are not simply going to get a degree and have doors automatically open up for you.  To make it as a professional paleontologist, you need to assimilate yourself thoroughly into the professional community, meet people, and let them get to know you and what you are capable of.

As you begin to research your master’s or PhD project, find out who the experts are in your field on your subject, and what other students are working on the same subject.  These are your future colleagues (and friends), the people you will be collaborating on projects with, notifying you of employment opportunities, research projects, and funding projects, and helping you find jobs.  They also know lots of things your don’t, and will appreciate things that you can teach them.  If they get to like you and care about you, and recognize that you are useful to know, they will want to help you.  Go to meetings to meet these people, and try to get out to the field to work with them at fossil digs, hang out and get to know them.  At times when graduate school feels like a crushing weight and jobs are hard to find, having these people in your life will make most of the difference as to whether or not you stay in paleontology, or even want to.

Also learn to sell yourself as a paleontologist to people who don’t know you, namely to people who can offer jobs and grants.  Learn to develop a professional persona that you can project to potential funding sources.  Accumulate job skills and experience, and practice describing these skills confidently and in as few concise sentences as possible.  You need to sound like you have a clear plan about what you will do for the people funding you, and you need to make people feel like they are biggest fools in the universe if they don’t give you money.  You need to become a good writer and speaker, someone who can get a message across clearly and confidently with as few words a possible.  If you can practice these skills while still a grad student, you will have a major leg up when you finish your degree.  Look for student research grants and summer employment opportunities, write your own applications and proposals, and let your colleagues and advisors read and critique them.  Like any other skill set, you get better through practice and accepting constructive criticism.

Also, be aware of what you are in for in grad school.  It will be a lot harder than you think, and there will be times when it seems like you are barely inching forward, the work load is too heavy, the prospects are too small, your motivation is almost nonexistent, and you want to ditch the entire thing and go work at Burger King.  I’m not trying to discourage you; just be aware that it is perfectly normal to go through this.  If you make the firm decision that you will finish no matter what happens…then you will finish, no matter what happens.  Stick with it.  When you need to, take a little time now and then to do fun things and hang out with friends to keep yourself sane.  The future will arrive if you make yourself keep moving.

Photo provided by Jeffrey Martz

Gary:  Why do you believe dinosaurs continue to fascinate the public?

Dr. Jeffrey Martz: Although the American public’s attitude towards science is not always a respectful one, paleontology is a science that is relatively easy to get people enthusiastic about.  I think dinosaurs continue to fascinate people because they are so unlike anything alive today.  To young children and the lay public, dinosaurs are huge, strange and cool-looking animals that include some predators that would be terrifying to meet in person.  To the young dinosaur enthusiast and paleontologist, they become even more fascinating when one learns about their connections to modern animals, especially birds.  Learning about dinosaur biology, phylogeny, and ecology links them firmly to the real world without taking away the strangeness that makes them so interesting. I thought Scott Sampson’s book Dinosaur Odyssey did a fantastic job of presenting dinosaurs as living animals inhabiting living ecosystems; for my money, it’s the best popular dinosaur book on the market.

Other than global warming, evolution is the science that suffers the most widespread resistance from the American public, which is a real shame since it tells an utterly fascinating story about how we got here. Because paleontology has such an appeal to the public, I think it provides a useful gateway to presenting evolution. My House of Bones blog at Labspaces (which I still hope to return to at some point) was largely an attempt to communicate evolution to the public via paleontology.  However, this requires laying some groundwork; since paleontology combines aspects biology and geology, it requires a bit of background in both sciences before it can be explained what paleontology tells us about evolution.  The strategy I adopted was to present a series of blogs giving introductory information on the fields of geology and biology that are relevant to reconstructing evolutionary history.

As I have done more reading into astronomy and cosmology, even more interesting to me is coming to realize how apparently disparate fields of knowledge such as astronomy, physics, chemistry, geology, and biology are connected, how these connections help reinforce what is know about each field, and the big picture this gives us about how and why we got here.  For example, Life on Earth is based on carbon, which is a molecule good at making complex molecules with other atoms, especially oxygen, hydrogen, and nitrogen.  Life on Earth also depends on water, a molecule which is has a variety of properties useful to metabolism, as well as being slow to change temperature, which creates a more stable environment for aquatic organisms.  Now, of all the planets in our solar system, only the Earth occurs a distance from the Sun that allows large quantities of water to remain liquid rather than freezing or vaporizing.  Moreover, although hydrogen is the most common element in the Universe because of its simplicity, heavier and more complex molecules such as oxygen and nitrogen form within stars during their lifetime and during supernovae, so one or two generations of stars had to pass through their life cycles and explode before it was even possible for many planets and complex organisms to exist.  Therefore, our form of life appeared where and when it did in the history of the Universe for particular reasons that make more and more sense as you see more and more pieces.  This example really only scratches the surface of what we’ve learned. 

Aside from resistance to science for religious reasons, I see two big problems for explaining to the public what we know about how we got here.  One is how much basic information needs to be learned before the big picture starts to come into focus.  The other is what a truly bizarre picture that is; the story of how we progressed over 13 billion years from an unimaginably dense and hot concentration of pure energy to a species of ape than can build spaceships and computers is almost to incredible to be believe, even though we have more than enough evidence to see at least the broad outlines of this story, and many parts of it in greater detail. And yet, the bulk of the public still thinks that science is so clueless about how we got here that invoking a supernatural being to make things poof into existence through some vaguely defined process (i.e. “magic”) is still a reasonable explanation.  I think that the widespread acceptance of such a simplistic and uninformative explanation, which glosses over the amazingly complex and fascinating picture being uncovered by science, is a real tragedy.