could you tell me EVERYTHING you can offer about a paleontologist? i've wanted to be one since i was 5 and i know alot about dino's but is that all they do? and what am i supposed to know if i where to become one? also COULD i still become one, because pretty much all of the dino's are discovered!
2007-02-22 12:24:54 · 5 answers · asked by pimp_knuckles 3 in Science & Mathematics ➔ Earth Sciences & Geology
Not at all, most paleontologists study other types of fossils.
eg. starting at the small end of the spectrum, there are very well paid jobs studying 'microfossils' - fossils of single-celled organisms which are used in petroleum exploration and just in general in geology. Sounds boring now but many are weird and wonderful. You could google 'foraminifera', 'diatoms', 'radiolaria', 'dinocysts', 'conodonts' and of course spores and pollen. And as they are the most incredibly abundant fossils - a handful of rock often contains thousands of them - you can see changes in high resolution with time. They tell you a lot about past environments and are the most useful fossils for relative time correlations. Very interesting once you get in to them. And as they are so abundant, discovering new species happens all the time.
Then you have 'macrofossils' - fossils of all the different types of invertebrate fossils like 'bivalves', 'brachiopods', 'ammonites', 'crinoids', 'echinoids', etc etc, or fossil plants. It's a very wide field with relatively few people spread across it so discovering new species is also fairly easy, especially outside North American and Europe. But the money isn't great. You're mainly looking at a job in a university or museum.
And then there are vertebrate fossils. These are the rarest fossils - you'll see far fewer, and mainly very incomplete, fossils this way. It's also a very competitive field. If you can find a job, you'll start at the bottom, looking at the least interesting fossils (of course a really good phd would help). A lot of vertebrate palaeo's have told me (I'm a micropaleo. / macropaleo. / geologist) that they wish they had done something else for a career (something which pays good money) and done their paleontology part-time. But if it's what your really interesting in I'm sure you'll love it - got to do what you love! I think there would definately be a lot of dinos still to discover, especially outside of North America / Europe.
To be any sort of paleontologist you need a lot of geology because geology gives the context of the fossil (like past environment). A lot of vertebrate paleos try to skimp on this but I don't think that that is a good idea. But it is especially important for microfossils and a lot of macrofossils as the main application of them is in the geology field. As things get bigger and more complicated, more biology is obviously needed. After your degree, a PhD, or at least a masters, in the specific type of fossil you choose is pretty much needed.
If you're still at school, pay attention in biology, chemistry and statistics when they come up. And most importantly, try hard in english. Being good at reading and writing is about the most important skill for just about anything that you choose to do.
2007-02-22 13:54:58 · answer #1 · answered by Anonymous · 1⤊ 0⤋
The only paleontologists that make any really decent money are micropaleontologists who study nannofossils and foranminifera for major oil companies (some of these guys can make $1500/day if they work on an oil drilling rig). All the rest are either teachers/researchers and are constantly scrambling around trying to get funding for research and make a living - which is pretty slim. Even the book writers don't make a lot of money...Paleontology is a passion and not necessarily a vocation.
2007-02-23 02:52:50 · answer #2 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
Absolutely there is still a need for paleontologists. And, there is no reason to suspect that pretty much all dinosaurs have been discovered.
There are two broad types of paleontologists: vertebrate and invertebrate. Vertebrate paleontologists study fossils of animals with backbones. Invertebrate paleontologists study fossils of animals without backbones. There are also paleobotanists (they study fossil plants) and palynologists, who study fossil spores and pollen. There are many, many more types of fossilized animals with no backbones than with backbones, but of course dinosaurs make better stories than snails, so you hear more about them. There probably are more opportunities for meaningful employment as an invertebrate paleontologist than all others combined, however.
Paleontologists usually have a degree or more in geology. They concentrate on the so called 'soft rock' studies (fossils are usually found in sedimentary rocks, which are termed 'soft rock' in the jargon. Also, you must take several biology type of courses, and (even though it might not seem necessary) math courses, as well. Paleontologists tend to be very creative and observant, because their bread and butter is discovery of new animal types, or new variations of known types. I discovered what turned out to be a new family of small molluscs during the process of working on my masters degree..I wasn't looking for it, I found it while comparing the fossils I was working on with other similar ones. It was pretty cool.
2007-02-22 12:45:55 · answer #3 · answered by David A 5 · 1⤊ 0⤋
Paleontologists study all kinds of things, not just dinosaurs. Of course you can become one. My good friend's brother is a paleontologist and he studies an animal called the tapir:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tapir
2007-02-22 12:29:28 · answer #4 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
Nanopaleo and foram identification is one of the best ways to identify/date a particular rock bed. Oil companies hire them to identify where stratigraphically the oil is.
Lots of geology, good bit of biology, and start learning latin and the names of the fossils.
2007-02-22 13:36:54 · answer #5 · answered by darkrevni 1 · 0⤊ 0⤋