Which combination is better for an undergrad looking into vertebrate paleontology?

Question

A geology major with a biology minor? Or a biology major with a geology minor?

Answer 1

To be honest, I don't really see how most biology classes would help with understanding fossils. Perhaps classes in systematics, anatomy and embryology would be useful, but many others would not relate. The sophisticated and specific aspects of biology that you would relate to the fossils, i.e. bone deposition rates or the structures of the inner ear bones in different animals, wouldn't really be showing up very much in undergrad bio. classes either. So I would guess that you should go with a geology major. But maybe you should actually ask some paleontologists. Even if your U doesn't have many around, you could probably find quite a number on line and e-mail them.

If you are interested in fossils because you are interested in studying the history of evolution, maybe you should consider studying molecular biology = pretty much all life has descended from a single successful cell by the modification of the genes that cell had, so if you want to explore that sort of research question, studying the genes may be the way to go. For example, eyes were once thought to have evolved independently in phylogeny perhaps as many as 30 times, but with the advent of DNA analysis it has become clear that most - if not all - eyes are derived from a common ancestral eye. Understanding how this occured is something that will be understood via molecular biology, not paleontology.

Good luck!

Answer 2

I'd focus on the geology, but take as much bio as possible if you can't double major. I'm an invert paleo grad student who took virtually no biology in undergrad--the geology is essential, but the bio would have helped.