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Grant will help paleontology students gain field experience
Savanna Smith/KANSAN
The University has received a grant to give paleontology students an opportunity to gain field experience in Wyoming and abroad in Turkey.
▶ TANNER HASSELL
@thassell17
A $100,000 grant from the David B. Jones Foundation will provide University paleontology students with an opportunity to gain field experience in Wyoming and abroad in Turkey, according to a University press release.The grant will also help train students in finding and excavating prehistoric mammals.
K. Christopher Beard, a professor of ecology & evolutionary biology, said the federal grant will provide undergraduate and graduate students with a unique opportunity to gain field work, without traveling across the globe.
"One of the most important things that students of paleontology need is real world experience," he said. "That can actually be pretty expensive, to put on a field expedition."
Graduate student Spencer Mattingly, from Richmond, Kentucky, said field experience is the only way aspiring paleontologists can venture into the field.
"Being able to go to a dig site and actually do this stuff hands-on is really the only way we can advance
our careers," he said.
Beard said the grant will fund two field experiences: the first in the Rocky Mountains of Wyoming, the second in Turkey.
One of the most important things that students of paleontology need is real world experience."
K. Christopher Beard professor of ecology and evolutionary biology
"Part of this project will be a dig here in the United States, in Wyoming. We're hoping to use that as an initial field experience for some of these students, before they work abroad in Turkey," he said.
Students participating in the digs will also receive specific training on finding the fossils of prehistoric mammals, according to Beard. Unlike dinosaurs, Beard said mammal fossils are very small and hard to find.
"It seems like there is this obsession in the field and in the media with finding the new biggest,ugliest
dinosaur," he said. "With mammals though, it's almost exactly the opposite. Often with mammals the smallest specimen you find is the most interesting."
Mattingly worked in the field under Beard during the summer of 2015. He said much of his time in Wyoming was spent looking for teeth.
"It was actually my first field experience, I had just graduated in May," he said. "I had the opportunity to study rock formations and learn about the environment these early mammals lived in. With mammals, the teeth are often the only
trace left, so we spent a lot of time learning about the structure of teeth and how to identify them."
Mattingly said his field experience was not only valuable, but necessary for his career.
"Field work is critical to the field in general though. We have to find and dig up new specimens for there to be paleontologists."
Edited by Erin Brock