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 Photo courtesy of the North Carolina State Museum of Natural Sciences |
Dr. Dale Russell |
Q. What made you decide to be a paleontologist?
A. That's really going back a long way for me. It was because it seemed like such a strange world. I was very curious about what it was like. You can't imagine what it is like if you don't know anything about it. It stimulated my curiosity and I thought it was adventuresome. I was very attracted to the idea of adventure.
Q. That fits in well with the next question. What is the most exciting thing you have ever discovered or worked on?
A. Well, actually I find research exciting. What I like a lot is trying to find out things. It's an even happiness, unbroken. I love it when I put the facts together. The time can go by quickly while you are deep in research, and you can lose your troubles for awhile.
In the field, the most exiting thing was finding this really huge bone in Alberta. It was part of the wing spar of a giant flying reptile. This was some time ago. The animal could have had a wing-span of thirty feet. Thirty feet would be a conservative guess. It was huge. It was the biggest ever found in Canada, and the only one of it's kind. I just couldn't believe it. I worked on that thing all afternoon, and I had a terrible time convincing anyone that I had really found it. It was one of those things that you just can't believe.
Q. How long did you have to go to school?
A. Well, you have to finish high school, and then I went to undergraduate school for four years. I majored in general science. It was a multi-disciplinary major. Then, to get my master's degree I went to graduate school for two more years, and majored in paleontology. Then, to get a PhD, I had to go for three more years and majored in geology. I guess it's mostly geology. But you could do it through biology, too. You study the animals related to the ones you'll be working with. Nowadays you could probably do it in less. You had to take languages, you know. I took French and German. I wish we still had to do that, because it was very helpful. I had to go for all those five years.
Q. What is your least favorite thing about being a paleontologist?
A. All the paperwork. There is a lot of paperwork. You have to fill out a form and apply for anything you want to do. Working with a big organization, and a University is a very large organization, there are always a lot of forms to fill out because it makes it easier for the administrative people to administrate. You get all these forms, and even though most are very easy, there are all these blank spaces and confusing terms and you think why do I have to do this? You have to put yourself in a form, and it's not easy.
Q. What is your favorite thing about being a paleontologist?
A. The research, again. I really love it. When you are just starting out it's hard to know what's new and if you are discovering something. When you make a discovery, it's yours, and whether you are doing it yourself, or reading someone else's work, it is new to you, and so it is your personal discovery, and your growth.
Q. What kind of person makes a good paleontologist?
A. Someone enthusiastic and humble . . . and smart.
Q. Why?
A. When you are enthusiastic, you love what you are doing. That's very important for a scientist. When you are humble, there's not an ego problem or over identification with the specialty. And being smart means that you learn quickly - that's so important for a scientist, so that you are not always frustrated and coming up against brick walls because you just can't understand. Humility is very important, because I've seen people who begin to think of themselves as dinosaur experts instead of people who want to learn about dinosaurs. And that is very harmful, because then you stop learning. They think of themselves as experts instead of explorers.
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