Dr. Jacobson,
I realize that you are an extremely busy scientist. I am a special education teacher. My son Christopher is a ten-year-old budding paleontologist. He eats, sleeps, and breathes dinosaurs! How can I turn his keen interest in paleontology into a potential career for him? He reads every book about dinosaurs - adult-level books from the library. He gets upset with me if I put his toys and models away out of geological order.... the Mesozoic dinosaurs go on one shelf, the Jurassic dinosaurs go on another shelf, etc. He is learning to use computers. When we meet to plan his educational program for school, which classes should we direct him into that will help him to become a successful paleontologist?
Sincerely,
Janet Lawrence
Janet:
Here is a write-up I often send to people interested in pursuing a paleontology career. I think it may have much of the info that you are seeking.......
Russ
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Typically you need to go through the Ph.D. level since most employment opportunities (and there are very few so it is hard for paleontologists of any kind to get jobs these days). I would recommend you consider a minor in some other field just in case, I know very many close friends who are still unemployed after years out of their Ph.D. program. The jobs are few and competition is fierce for the few positions so an alternate plan is probably in your best future interest just in case!
In your undergraduate college courses you should get a strong background in the basic sciences, especially: geology, biology, mathematics, chemistry and physics. Math through calculus and a year of chemistry and physics are a minimum. Paleontologists generally have a major in geology or biology and a number have a major in one field and minor area of study in the other.
In high school your preparation should include as many advance science and math courses as possible. Foreign languages (especially German, French, Russian or Chinese) are important as many papers on fossils are written in these other languages. Computer training is also essential.
In graduate school your experience will be different from the 4-year undergraduate work. In your undergrad work you will take classes with lectures and labs, do field work and trips, and have textbook readings. Graduate school you do a number of independent research courses/projects in addition to taking advanced courses in geology, biology, zoology, and paleontology (often special courses worked out with instructors with limited times and enrollments). You also will be required to do original research towards a major paper for both your Masters degree and Doctoral degree.
Micropaleontologists and invertebrate paleontologists typically have their main major as geology (specializing in paleo). Paleobotanists take their training in botany with a minor in geology. And typically vertebrate paleontologists have a major in zoology Whatever your specialty in paleontology you will need to take other liberal arts courses (English, humanities, art, and so forth) in other fields and perhaps minor in one of them to be a well-rounded paleontologist (and flexible enough to find employment in a primarily non-paleontological job since their are so few pure paleo positions these days!
Again let me emphasize that you will need to be well rounded in other fields, it is not easy to get a job in paleontology. There are more new paleontologists trained every year (even hard to get geology jobs so this is actually a broader problem) than there are openings available for employment. Competition for those positions is fierce so you will have to be top in your field otherwise you likely will not be employed ---its that bad!!! I know of one person who is applying and applying for jobs and many have 300 to 500 applicants for one paleo position!
Just for your info there are about 3,000 practicing paleontologists in the US alone. A majority of these are working at Universities and Colleges (hence need for Ph.D.) and industry -- primarily oil companies the second largest employer. Government agencies (like geological surveys) employ up to several hundred paleontologists but they are employed (like me) not exclusively in paleontology (in other words they often do other geological work as their main job).
On my Vertebrate Paleontology Web page I have a link to a Society of Vertebrate Paleontology web site where there is a list of schools and if available web links to those who have good Vertebrate Paleontology training potential. In terms of other disciplines of Paleontology I don't know of such a list.
In terms of time it will take, typically 4 for undergrad degree, another 2 for your masters, and 2 for your Ph.D., so about 8 years of your life will be going to school for this!
Don't give up your plan to pursue Paleontology and I encourage you to move ahead, but do take seriously my warning about being flexible in terms of employment and having something else to fall back on for work. You will need to persevere and do very well in this field and you may be one of the lucky few who get full-time employment directly in paleontology, or at least in a geoscience field where you can do paleo with other work.
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Russ Jacobson Email:jacobson@geoserv.isgs.uiuc.edu
Vertebrate Paleontologist Fax 217-333-2830
Stratigrapher 217-244-2426 Home Phone: 217-384-6983
615 E Peabody Drive
Illinois Geological Survey
Champaign, IL 61820
Keeper of DINO RUSS's LAIR
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Dear Welcome to Holland Web Readers This is MOM -
Q. How do you eat an Elephant (or Apatosaurus)?
A. One bite at a time.
This correspondence from Dino Russ is not the least bit discouraging to me! In fact, it gives me some of the leverage that I need for Christopher. Our first task before us is to get Christopher through High School. Any time he moans or complains about why he has to learn all of this stuff, I can tell him that all good paleontologist have to know it. I can use this letter to motivate him to do his school work and maybe to motivate the school personel to get the "act" together, because by golly, he intends to finish school and be a paleontologist when he grows up.
Let's look at some realistic expectations while we are at it, shall we? Suppose we realize somewhere along the way, that Christopher is not academically talented enough to complete the mountains of coursework that Dino Russ has set before us? Are there other avenues for being around dinosaurs that don't involve a doctorate degree? Sure!
If Christopher learns how to dig appropriately, he might become a dinosaur fieldworker. The janitor in a natural history museum gets to be around dinosaurs all day. He would make an excellent museum docent, because he has excellent memory and wrote recitation when it is about dinosaurs. (Echolalia can be a good thing in this situation.)
We intend to plan some of our family vacations in the next few years around visiting dinosaur points of interest. We are looking forward to visiting Dinosaur National Monument Park in Colorado like most families look forward to a trip to Disney World.
I have always believed, that where there is a will, there is a way. We now have ten years or so to find our way through this.
Sincerely,
Janet Lawrence
