Expert: Ralph Salier - 1/21/2009

Question
Hi,
For school, we have been assigned a career project and incidentally, I'm interested in pursuing a career in paleontology. I have a few questions pertaining to your job, and I would be very grateful for your help.

How did you become interested in archeology?

What kind of education/training does one receive before entering this profession?

How does paleontology and archeology pertain to our lives (how is it practical)?

How are most paleontologists employed?

What do you enjoy most about your job?

Do most archaeologists work in the field, in the lab, or elsewhere?

Again, thank you so much for helping me out.

-Addison


Answer
Hi Addison,

Paleontology and Archaeology do have things in common.  Digging in the dirt, looking for bones, collecting environmental materials but this is where the similarities end.

Most Paleontology is looking for fossils, the  remains of animals and plants that can give us an idea of what the environment looked like when they were alive.  Paleontology goes back to the beginnings of life on Earth.  On occasion, a paleobotonist or a paleontologist may be found on an archeological site but not always.

I became interested in both as a child.  I grew up on a farm and we would search the plowed fields for arrowheads and other materials.  On occasion we also went looking for fossils.  I was hooked from the first artifact I found and the first fossil I found.  

My initial training was as an amature looking for these materials with out understanding how these materials fit into the broader scheme of their context and I did not realize that by removing them from their context reduced or eliminated their value in helping the professionals to understand the culture or the paleontological context.  My first professional dig was when I was 10.  My parents invited a team from the University of Pennsyvania to to an excavation on our farm.  I was invited to participate and I must have done well enough to impress the dig's director since he invited me to subsequent digs after that.  In fact once I turned 16, I received college credit and I entered College with 18 credit hours.  

The training for Archaeology is different to a degree from paleontology.  In the case of archaeology you are mapping the remains of cultures and how these change over time.  And you are also collecting environmental data to gain a better understanding of the climate and potential food resources these people had during their time at the site.  With Paleontology, most of these materials are fossilized and are emtombed in stone and you need to learn how to tease these materials out of the rocky matrix.  Yes, you are also collecting other materials at the same time but you are not reconstructing the culture of  these animals and plants as you do with the human cultural materials in Archaeology.

The Training takes at least 4 years for both and it can continue for a life time beyond the initial 4 years.  I have a Masters degree and was considering a PhD in a very narrow subject field but did not pursue it due to cost.

These pertain to our lives today only from a broader sense.  It helps us to understand  where we come from, what happened to the Earth over time, it gives us an insight to the lives of our ancestors and what we had  to do to survive.  It also has given us a great insight into the climatic changes the Earth has undergone and how it may change yet again in our future.  This could be critically important given the current state of global warming.

Mot paleontologists are employed by museums and universities. Some work for oil and gas companies since this is also closely related to geology and the identification of some kinds of fossils is associated with oil and gas discoveries.

I enjoy teasing out the life ways of the people and materials I excavate or that are excavated by others.  To gain an understanding of these long dead people, what they saw in the night sky and what they believed in.  Also how does this translate into today's world.

I also enjoy working with people from many cultures and helping them make transitions from one place to another.  

Most archaeologists work for a time in the field gathering the materials and then they retire to the lab for the analysis of the materials gathered in the field.  Some prefer field work and others lab work.  Personally, I like both equally.

I hope that this has helped.  Ask more questions if they pop up.