Dinosaur Dreaming

The questions: 1 - 2 - 3 - 4 - 5 - 6 - 7 - 8 - 9 - 10

Ten questions (7):
What part of palaeontology do you enjoy most?

Tom Rich: The process of coming to understand the life of the past.

Pat Vickers-Rich: All of it - but the field work is what I love most.

Lesley Kool: This is a hard question. I love finding the fossils, but I love preparing them too. Sometimes the significance of a fossil will not be apparent when it is first found. It may be months or years later, when it is prepared, that it becomes obvious that it is something new or significant. The partial articulated Hypsilophodontid skeleton [Ed: from Dinosaur Cove] is a good example. We did not realise it was a partial skeleton until I prepared it, five months later. Similarly, the only evidence of a monotreme from Dinosaur Cove was not revealed until it was prepared, three years later. Then there is the added thrill of scouring the text books looking for similar specimens from elsewhere in the world. The excitement of suggesting what our new find "might" be is always fun. However, working with a close knit group of people with the same enthusiasm and love of discovery as myself is probably the best part of palaeontology. After all, what is the point of finding something new and exciting, if you cannot share it with someone who appreciates its worth as much as you do.

Nicola Barton: Working on digs.

Nick van Klaveren: New discoveries and finding dinosaur teeth. (The rarer and larger the better.)

Nicole Evered: The waiting to find the next piece in the puzzle.