A club or amateur search is one thing, but we would like something professional. Where to go to study to become a paleontologist?
The fact is that traditionally paleontology is considered a geological rather than a biological discipline. Yes, this science is about the development of life, but the subject of its study is fossil remains in sedimentary rocks. That’s why a course in paleontology is taught at all geology departments in any university where geology is studied. But professional paleontologists (not geologists with knowledge of paleontology) are not trained everywhere.
When applying to this program, you should focus on examinations in mathematics, physics, and English. Recruitment of paleontologists is now small. The competition for a place is 2-3 people.
The required curriculum list includes natural sciences: physics, chemistry, biology (especially zoology, comparative anatomy, etc.); much attention is paid to mathematics. There’s nowhere without the cycle of geological sciences, and these are general and historical geology, lithology, etc. And finally, paleontological disciplines proper, from micropaleontology to paleoecology.
Like all sciences, paleontology has its own specialization.
- Fossils of animals, both vertebrates and invertebrates, are studied by paleozoologists, and plant remains by paleobotanists. The latter may deal, for example, with pollen and spores, in which case they will be called paleopalynologists.
- The subject of interest of micropaleontology is the fossils of microorganisms, which can only be seen under a microscope.
- Molecular paleontology studies chemofossils, fossil molecules that belonged to ancient organisms.
- How could they have survived? This question, and in general the patterns of burial and fossilization processes, is in the domain of taphonomy.
- The study of the ecosystem interrelationships of ancient organisms and the evolution of ecosystems in general is the domain of paleoecology.
In this program we train future scientists, post-graduate students. This program is suitable for those who are determined to tie their lives to science and want to do scientific research on the past.
It is not uncommon for paleontologists to combine several occupations: they do research in the department, teach at the university, advise, organize exhibitions, lead tours, and popularize science.