Is paleontology going extinct?

Even before linkurl:__Jurassic Park__;http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0107290/ brought dinosaurs to cinematic life, the ancient reptiles were fascinating to most people, especially kids. These days, mountains of books, toys and other paraphernalia are marketed to kids between ages 2 and 10. Most youngsters know __Tyrannosaurus rex__ and __Triceratops__ by sight, and many have mastered hundreds of arcane paleontological names as well. People assume that with all this dinophilia, and with all the money spent on dinosaur paraphernalia, paleontology must be rolling in dough. Nothing could be further from the truth. In reality, paleontology in the US and in most of Europe is starved for funds and jobs, and in many places paleontology is on its way to extinction.

The best argument I've heard that explains the near unanimous childhood fascination with dinosaurs can be put in three words: "big," "real," and "extinct." Dinosaurs are like the dragons and monsters of childhood imagination. They were real, but they're not too scary, since they're now extinct. In some cases, kids who can memorize hundreds of bits of dinosaur trivia feel empowered, especially when they know something that the adults in their lives don't. Teachers know that talking about dinosaurs gets kids interested in science, and that they are an effective gateway to promote scientific thinking and literacy.Somehow, as toddlers become teens, the fascination with dinosaurs (like other childhood interests) wanes. Dinosaurs are no longer considered cool, and most American adolescents lose interest in science as well. By the time they reach their late teens, most students take chemistry or biology only because those courses are required. Most American teachers know they're fighting an uphill battle to keep students focused on science.Nonetheless, interest in dinosaurs and paleontology is still widespread, if attendance at natural history museums is any indicator. But the job market for paleontologists in most countries is abysmal and getting worse, threatening the entire field with extinction (for more details, see my new book, linkurl:__Greenhouse of the Dinonsaurs__,;http://www.amazon.com/Greenhouse-Dinosaurs-Evolution-Extinction-Future/dp/0231146604 Chapter 10). In the US, fewer than one in ten graduate students (who spend at least ten years in college getting a hard-earned PhD) find a job as a professional paleontologist, either in a museum or a teaching job that allows research. When a paleontologist retires from a university, she's typically not replaced by another paleontologist. In many cases, generations of accumulated knowledge and expertise are lost because there are no jobs and therefore no students to learn from aging mentors.In addition, there is very little grant funding available for paleontological research. There are at best only a few hundred professional paleontologists around the world, and they must scrape by on shoestring budgets. Though dinosaur merchandise undoubtedly generates piles of cash, none of it actually supports the scientists who made all those realistic toys, books and movies possible.Why is this so? The major US science funding agencies, such as the National Science Foundation (NSF) and the National Institutes of Health (NIH), tend to favor projects with big machines, big staffing requirements, and big budgets. Paleontology fits none of these descriptions. I have been on NSF panels that reviewed and ranked proposals from paleontologists, sedimentologists, and many other types of geologists. Fewer than 20% of hundreds of outstanding proposals by first-rate researchers were funded, and paleontologists got almost none of this money. And as long as paleontology cannot compete on an equal funding level, departments have little incentive to keep a paleontologist on staff.There are lots of practical reasons why paleontology remains important and merits a place at the academic "high table." For one thing, paleontology is the only direct record we have of life's history, and how evolution actually occurred. As linkurl:George Gaylord Simpson;http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/evolution/library/06/2/l_062_02.html put it in 1944: "Experimental biology...may reveal what happens to a hundred rats in the course of ten years under fixed and simple conditions, but not what happened to a billion rats in the course of ten million years under the fluctuating conditions of natural history. Obviously, the latter problem is more important." Paleontology is also central to geology. There are hundreds of paleontologists in the employ of the oil industry. Without their efforts over the past century, most of our great economic boom from oil discoveries would never have happened. Despite the best efforts of geochronologists, fossils are still the only practical means of dating most stratified rocks around the world.Above all, paleontology is fascinating in its own right. Without the efforts of hard-working paleontologists, we would not have these extinct beasts to marvel at in museums. They give us a different perspective, and a more humbling and less arrogant view of our place in nature. Without paleontologists, these amazing extinct creatures would not be available to excite and stimulate the next generation of scientists we so desperately need.linkurl:__Greenhouse of the Dinosaurs: Evolution, Extinction, and the Future of Our Planet__,;http://cup.columbia.edu/book/978-0-231-14660-9/greenhouse-of-the-dinosaurs by Donald R. Prothero, Columbia University Press, New York, 2009. 288 pp. ISBN: 978-0-231-14660-9. $29.50.linkurl:__Donald R. Prothero;http://www.oxy.edu/x5054.xml is Professor of Geology at Occidental College in Los Angeles and Lecturer in Geobiology at the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena. He is currently the author, co-author, editor, or co-editor of 25 books and over 200 scientific papers. He has also been featured on several television documentaries, including episodes of __Paleoworld__ (BBC), __Prehistoric Monsters Revealed__ (History Channel), __Entelodon and Hyaenodon__ (National Geographic Channel) and __Walking with Prehistoric Beasts__ (BBC).__
**__Related stories:__***linkurl:Fossil frenzy;http://www.the-scientist.com/blog/display/55725/
[21st May 2009]*linkurl:Earliest fossil seal found;http://www.the-scientist.com/blog/display/55653/
[22nd April 2009]*linkurl:Is systematic biology dead?;http://www.the-scientist.com/blog/display/55005/
[8th September 2008]

Is paleontology going extinct?

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