What exactly does a paleontologist study?
The entire history of life on earth, over the known record of the last 3.5 billion years. Why did you decide to become a paleontologist? I had a really great teacher in college; he made geology and paleontology interesting and exciting. Then I went out on a real dig. It was tough work, and sometimes boring, but the fossils we discovered made it exciting and worth all of the hard work. What kind of schooling did you have? After graduating from college I went to graduate school to study geology, biology and paleontology and received a Ph.D. from Columbia University in New York. Is most of your work in the field, or in a laboratory? A bit of both, I spend 2 to 3 months a year in the field and much of my time in the laboratory looking at the fossils, describing and understanding them. When and where do you go out into the field? Usually I go twice a year for 3 to 6 weeks each trip. I have done field work in the United States, in Wyoming, Colorado, Montana, Texas and California. I also work
