Palaeontology: a study of life in the geological past

[f. Gk palaios ancient]. Australian Oxford Dictionary.

“Dinosaurs and fossils are 98% of the time, a child’s introduction to science,” says Dr Erich Fitzgerald, a young palaeontologist trained in Melbourne.

“Most kids between 4 and 8 have a case of what you’d call dinosauritis. They go to a museum and want to see dinosaurs.

While most kids grow out of it, there are those who have terminal cases. And those cases grow up to be palaeontologists.

“There’s an aura of mystery around palaeontology because you have the opportunity, in a true sense, to travel back through time. It’s a vivid, tangible, tactile thing … You can give a five year old kid a Tyrannosaurus rex skull to touch, and in that moment of sheer wonder at the fossil, there are questions and connections with the natural world being made. And in modern times, I think people want to get back to that.

“People say to you, ‘You’ll never get a job, never earn a million dollars, you’ll live on the street. If you do palaeontology, you’ll never get anywhere.’ But I’m convinced that palaeontologists are a bit different. They’re the true believers and they do it because they love it.”

Dr Karen Roberts, another young Australian palaeontologist considers what palaeontology can tell us about the world – past, present and future.

“It gives us great insights into deep time history, and animal trajectories through time. The platypus is a key example. It used to have teeth, it was larger and had a wider distribution. Now, its distribution has shrunk, it doesn’t have teeth – which is one of the endpoints in evolutionary living – and it’s hyper-specialised. Theoretically, it’s on the way out. But that’s no reason to give up on it and say ‘let’s not worry about the platypus anymore’. If anything, it creates even more of a reason for conservation, because you know it’s reached the end of the line.

“On the other hand, the fossil record shows us that koalas are relatively more common and wide-spread than they used to be. From a conservation perspective, koalas are surviving fine in their current habitats of eucalyptus forest. They’re prolific enough to be considered a pest in some areas.

“From that perspective, palaeontology helps us look at where the fauna of Australia is heading, and to think about the evolution and conservation of our animals.”

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