The DinoBase Public Forum

This survey started as a vague idea about issues in palaeontology that crystallised and resulted in me sending out an e-mail to a whole raft of friends and colleagues in palaeontology. Although I only mailed a couple of dozen people it included everyone from undergrads to senior professors, postdocs and lecturers, as well as ‘additional’ people like the odd working amateur and lab tech. I asked people from most continents, those who are working abroad and at home, and in all kinds of fields. It includes those from Asia, an American working in England, a Hungarian working in Germany, an American professor or two and more. Obviously there is a  bias towards dinosaur / reptile research (but not exclusively – there are invert and mammal workers) as those are the people I know best and was prepared to ask the to give me their time, still given the nature of the questions, I don’t think it will have a big impact, especially given the sheer variety of the answers I got.

I only asked 5 questions and tried to tailor them to be ‘big’ but hopefully relatively simple to answer. However, I was surprised at the complexity of some answers and especially the diversity of responses. I expected at least a vague consensus on some areas and found nothing of the sort (which is in itself very interesting). This might in part be explained by the discrepancies between the ages and experiences of the various people polled, and the different research environments (and countries) they work in – what frustrates a teenage undergraduate is unlikely to be the same as a 60 year old professor, but still one would expect some consensus - apparently not.

I had intended to create more or less a mini-poll of each questions most popular answers and then perhaps add a little discussion of my own, and perhaps a few choice quotes from the answers I got. However, with the way things panned out, it is probably easier to list the answers and expand on the more interesting ones. In order to make a nice series of this, I’ll post the full list of questions here and then do one question per day in a new post. Mat Wedel (or Dr Vector fame) and I are also intending to start a new blog meme based on it at the end of the week, so hopefully this will spread and expand further with new answers, new ideas and new discussions. Some people asked to remain anonymous and so I will include their answers, but without any references to them (obviously) bar the country they work in, but most were happy to be identified and so I have given their names and where they are working with the relevant quotes.

The answers here are genuinely fascinating, and I was bowled over by some of them, if only because of the contrasts with others. For anyone working in palaeo, I think the answers show just what kind of things interest and affect us at all kinds of levels, and for those who are just interested, it gives a real insight into what is going on in palaeo at the moment, what it means to us, and why.

For now I’ll just try to whet your appetites with the list of questions I posed. I had to keep the number short so it would not take too long to answer and encourage responses, and keep it general enough to be relevant to a general readership (and of course a fair variety of people being quizzed - 20 in total). So if you want to see what Thomas Holtz, Jerry Harris, Robert Reisz, Dave Martill, Liu Jun, Martin Lockley, Matt Wedel and more think about palaeontology, then come back soon.

1. What do you think is the great unsolved mystery of palaeontology?

2. What do you think is the most exciting topic / area of research in palaeontology right now?

3. What do you consider to be the biggest problem with palaeontology?

4. What area of palaeontology do you think is most neglected?

5. How do you think the general public view science / palaeontology in your country?