Advice For Aspiring Researchers In Vertebrate Paleontology, Part 4: Find Your Community

Vertebrate paleontologists who get publicity on account of some discovery which seems particularly interesting to the press (though it may not always be quite as relevant to the VP community at large) sometimes try to elevate the importance of paleontology in the public eye. For example, they may talk about how vertebrate paleontology is important because it tells us how life has responded to past climate change or more dramatic catastrophes, which is therefore relevant to understanding current human-caused environmental problems. Wow, sounds important!

However, this is basically bullshit. We do vertebrate paleontology because it is fun to find things out, not because we want to solve the world's problems, and frankly I don't think we should have to justify this unless we are prepared to do away with athletics and the arts. None of these things solve the problems of world hunger, overpopulation, climate change, cancer etc... They merely make the world a more colorful and interesting place. While not super interested in sports, I am not someone who rips into athletics, unless it takes priority over education within educational institutions. Everyone is entitled to their own particular interests. However, by the same token anyone who dumps on purely academic science but spends money on athletics, music or any other form of entertainment is painfully hypocritical.

Nonetheless, there is unquestionably something very strange about what we do. We are grown adults who still work on dinosaurs. That is not normal. Granted, our childhood interest in dinosaurs as big scary crazy-looking monsters that eat people has matured into something a little more deep and sophisticated. We see a more complex, detailed, and beautiful natural world than we did as children. Nonetheless, our sophisticated sounding discussions of vertebrate anatomy, systematics, ontogeny, paleoecology, and biostratigraphy which so dismay, confuse, and bore our significant others is basically an adult manifestation of eating plastic cavemen with dinosaur toys.

Like most fun things, vertebrate paleontology is more enjoyable as a group activity, which is what makes field camps and SVP meetings such fun. The difficult days of field work, cool discoveries, and interesting presentations are what get talked about in news articles and NOVA specials. We sometimes talk about these things amongst ourselves as well. However, most of the stories we tell each other sitting around bar tables and camp fires deal with weird parties, incomprehensible drunkenness, pretentious assholery, hilarious sexual activity or attempts to produce it, and other ridiculous behavior.

I was going somewhere with this.

Community connections, right. I’m not talking specifically about people you have fun with, who can help you find a job or cover up your ethical transgressions, etc., although these may be useful. This series of blogs is about research, so I am mainly talking about your research sub-community, the people who work on the same types of critters, other critters in rocks of the same age, or similar sorts of problems (histology, ontogeny, biostratigraphy, etc…).

Once you have identified your subject of study, you must find these people. They know things. They know about specimens you might want to work on, field areas which are productive, or which haven’t been explored in a long time and are worth a look, important papers you haven’t heard of, or where you can get a copy of hard to find papers, other people you need to talk to. They will have projects they may want to collaborate with you on. Over time, they will be able to share private jokes and references that will confuse even other members of the VP community. You need to get to know these people, because you will be dealing with them (hopefully on a friendly basis) throughout your career (or at least until you have to change specialties in order to get a job). Even within the VP community, it can be a little lonely when there is no one to talk to about your particular interests. You need these people, so treat them nice and don’t steal their research.

Not that you should avoid connections outside your specialization; you will still have plenty to talk about (see fourth paragraph). Other academics, including vertebrate paleontologists who work on other stuff, will certainly be able to offer good advice on things like how to improve your writing, doing better research, job opportunities, etc. However, your friends and colleagues in your little sub-community will better understand your particular needs as a researcher. They will keep you up to date on current research and literature relevant to your specialty. They will be better qualified than most of the VP community to judge and offer constructive criticism on your research, since they are more familiar with the subject matter.

This is why SVP is really important; forget all that other crap I said, I was crazy. The Society of Vertebrate Paleontology annual meetings is where almost everyone who knows everyone in the community VP gathers in one place so we can be among our own kind. If you haven’t gone yet, you need to go. Not just because it is a good place to have fun, buy lots of books and other cool shit, and remind yourself why you are working on dead animals for a living when graduate school or job hunting is crushing your spirit into a hard little turd. SVP, and other professional conferences (Geological Society of America being a notable example), are where you make connections and get information. They are research tools. Research tools where you get wasted.

LNJeff

POSTCRIPT: Reading back over this, I realize that I make it sound like research paleontologists have no interest in educational, social, or environmental issues. This isn’t true of course, and I am also not saying that we can’t throw a little something into these issues. My point is just that this isn’t why we do paleontological research or go to conferences (at least, I think, not the vast majority of us). A lot of us are certainly interested in the state of American science education, and not just because we want to encourage the American public to keep supporting our meal ticket. It is probably best for the nation’s future if the next generation of children learns to think about problems in terms of evidence and reason, not what they would like to be true, and this has ramifications far beyond whether or not they accept evolutionary theory. The whole intellectual attitude responsible for opposition to evolution is reflected in issues of real importance in terms of human welfare ranging from the environment to sex education. Encouraging school kids to show enough intellectual courage and toughness to try to assess issues in terms of evidence rather than their personal comfort level may help make the next generation a little less retarded. Paleontologists can help, at least in our side capacity as science educators. Good subject for a future blog, perhaps.