Palaeontology & Me: 5 questions answered exploring my interest in Palaeontology

For this article I figured I would do something a little bit different. I thought I would share more about my interest in Palaeontology by answering 5 questions about what it means to me.

Question 1. What is your favourite Dinosaur?

This is always a difficult question for me as I have so many favourites. Obviously the usual Tyrannosaurus Rex, Brachiosaurus, Triceratops and Velociraptor come to mind. But if I had to pick one at the moment it would have to be Edmontosaurus regalis. I’m really interested in Hadrosaurs, it’s one group of Dinosaurs that I hope to work on one day in the future.

Question 2. Why are you interested in Hadrosaurs specifically?

There are many reasons. I think the main one for me is just how weird looking they are as a group of Dinosaurs. They have these Duck like bills, some of them even had crests like Edmontosaurus regalis, Corythosaurus and Parasaurolophus among other examples. They were big creatures, family oriented and social. I just imagine Hadrosaurs being the equivalent of today’s Wildebeest in the Late Cretaceous.

Question 3. Are their any dig sites across the world you would love to visit? If so what are they?

Yeah I have a quite a few. I won’t mention them all as there are so many. I have always wanted to visit Wyoming, ever since I saw a documentary on dinosaur fieldwork there at the Morrison Formation when I was younger. The Hell Creek Formation in particular is one site I would really like to see along with the Judith River Formation. Dinosaur Provincial Park in Canada is another place I would love to visit and there are lots of others.

Question 4. What sparked your interest in a career in Palaeontology?

If you read my first article you would already know the answer to this. Palaeontology has been a career dream of mine ever since I was a child. Jurassic Park and Walking with Dinosaurs were a big part of this! Unfortunately by the end of college I dropped the idea and thought working in the humanitarian sector would be a viable career for me. After doing an amazing gap year with a charity I realised deep down working for a charity wasn’t for me. I have always had this longing to go out to different parts of the world and dig up Dinosaur bones. Very fortunately for me I am on the first Palaeontological research step of hopefully making this dream become a reality in a good few years’ time.

Question 5. In order of best to worst (1 being best and 5 being the worst) how would you rate the Jurassic Park/World franchise?

This question is always a point of disagreement, every Jurassic fan is different but I think I have to go with the below.

1. Jurassic Park. 2. Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom. 3. Jurassic World. 4. The Lost World: Jurassic Park. 5. Jurassic Park 3.

I really loved Fallen Kingdom. I just thought it was such a different Jurassic film compared to the past four. I loved how Crichton it was in it’s themes.

I hope you all have enjoyed this article. It is very different to what I normally post but I hope it has provided some additional insight into my interest in Palaeontology. Keep an eye on Jurassic Finds over the coming months for more Palaeontological content!