Saturday, August 2, 2014

"You must be obsessed with death...."

Yes, I do believe one of our visitors was creeped out by the sheer number of bones lying around. And I had just been waiting to be able to explain something like this. My answer was set and ready. 

 You see, paleontologists don't have to be obsessed with death. OK, I suppose some are, the field just attracts some really odd people.

 But I'd say the rest of us aren't. If anything, we're kind of obsessed with life. 

 You see, if you are a biologist, a vet, a doctor, or anything like that, you're in a constant race against the death of a person or the death of a species. Inevitably, your subject of study will die, and its your job to learn or do as much as you can before that happens.

 But my subject is kind of already dead. I'm not racing against death. I'm finding the bones and bringing their world back to life for you to see through what basically boils down to (non-fictional) story telling. If someone just walks into the museum or the Rhino Barn, they see bones. Bones, bones, bones.... but then when you ask someone who studies those bones, we have a way of making the bones come back to life almost. Suddenly one pile of bones is a rhino, another a horse, and all of them part of a bigger story.

And voila! My optimistic spin on nthings.

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My Story (Very briefly...)

Lots of people claim that they wanted to be paleontologists at the age of 3. So did I. The problem is, I never really grew out of it. My third birthday party had dinosaurs. Everywhere. I grew up digging in fossil dirt from Aurora, NC, looking for coral and shark teeth. I practically lived at my local science museums (and still do, only now I get to do research, fossil preparation, and work in collections!) When local paleontologists discovered a dinosaur with a "fossilized heart" (no longer considered such) when I was little, I got to meet the man who led the work. And then, years later a dinosaur bone with soft tissue turned up. I was officially hooked.
No longer was I dreaming about dinosaurs. I was actively pursuing the science behind prehistoric creatures. I didn't want to read about it, I wanted in on the action. So I started working at the museum, and finally going on my own adventures. And thus, I needed a place to share them and maybe inspire others the way I was inspired. I have gone from watching fossils be prepared from one side of the glass at the museum to working on them on the inside of the glass. I am a student working toward my goal. I can finally start to call myself a paleontologist.