Geology

How Did I Get Here?

When I was twelve years old, I wanted to have a job that took me away in the morning in a jeep, roaming across badlands looking for 'things.' The great appeal for me was fieldwork, travel, camping, jeeps, and the chance to wear pith helmets, rugged shoes, and tan trousers.

In college, I would take my lunch to the campus natural history museum. I walked among the exhibits, allowing my mind to wander and relax. On these walks I would encounter doors that opened to stairways leading up to research libraries or down to laboratories. I decided I wanted to hang my hat in a museum among aquaria, cabinets, and mounted bison skeletons. I got my Ph.D. in geology from the University of Arizona.

What Do I Do?

As Curator of Geology, I spend a great deal of time accessioning and cataloging the collections. Fossil elephant remains in our collections are the focus of my research, which is one of the things I enjoy most.

My research interests focus on the time interval commonly known as the Ice Age, essentially the last 1.8 million years of geological time. My typical subjects are mastodonts, elephant-like animals from Ice Age deposits in Illinois. I am also interested in what happened to my subjectsóthe life history of a animalófrom the time it died to its recovery as a fossil.

For questions that cannot be answered on the basis of Illinois' fossils, I include data from the Midwest, other areas of North America, or Europe and Asia. I look at mammoths, other elephantlike animals, and horses that are now common to all of these continents.

I enjoy looking again at something that has been done or a result that has been reported and finding an unknown interconnection or relationship. It is exciting to see a concept that I developed now being used routinely.

Some Advice

If you're interested in paleontology, I encourage you to "just do it." Open the door. If the desire is within, proceed with that desire. You have to get into paleontology for the love of it. There are a few jobs and they do not pay particularly well. However, if you really like what you are doing, you'll find that there are all sorts of other rewards.

Curator of Geology (Vertebrate Paleontologist)

How Did I Get Here?

I liked to play with toy dinosaurs as a kid. When I was about five I wanted to be a paleontologist (although I don't know if I knew the word then).

What Do I Do?

I analyze animal bones from paleontological sites to learn about past animal communities and environments. I assist the education section with content questions and present public programs on geology, Ice Age animals, caves, and bats. I identify fossils and rocks brought to the museum by the public.

I am most happy when I am exploring a cave to collect fossils. I also love to discover new and exiting things about animals and ecosystems of the past and share them with the public. I enjoy the museum setting because you work with a variety of people, including other scientists, educators, exhibit designers, students of all ages, and the general public.

Some Advice

There are a limited number of places that a vertebrate paleontologists can work. Find a setting where you can do research and present the results to professional and public audiences.