MadSci Network: Evolution |
Will there be dinosaur bones left? It seems that most people develop a dinosaur fascination around age six. You imagine the giant beasts lumbering across the landscape, and you imagine yourself working in far away exotic places uncovering their remains. What turns you into a paleontologist is that you never outgrow that fascination. We all still have those dreams - or at least I do. However, even a budding paleontologist needs to grow up. Most paleontologists do not work with dinosaur remains. Paleontology is the study of past life, and the dinosaurs existed for only a small period during the history of life on our planet. So, you don't want to think of paleontology as being dinosaur dependent. While finding new fossils is an important aspect of paleontology, that is not where most of the work gets done. Most paleontologists do their work in museums and laboratories examining the fossils that were found by other people. Because there are always new ways of looking at things, and new technologies, there will always be opportunities for the paleontologist. But we all still really want to dig up fossils. To be sure the fossil record is limited. It is theoretically possible that all the fossils that exist could be dug up - but that's not likely to happen in the near future. Digging up fossils is an extremely labor intensive process. It also happens to be a job that doesn't pay very well. That means that there are very few people that are actually digging up fossils. Most fossil hunters work more for the joy of the process than for the pay. Fossils are not being actively mined the way oil or coal is being drawn out of the ground. In fact, the fossil record has barely been scratched. You can rest assured that there are many times more buried fossils out there than exist in museums today, and that this will remain true for years to come. So, I think that there will be plenty of fossils to uncover when your son gets his chance.
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