Imagine Magazine - Johns Hopkins - November/December 2015 - (Page 18)

HOOKED ON History IN COLLEGE AND BEYOND, THERE ARE MANY WAYS TO EXPLORE Stories Written in Bone THE PAST. YOU MIGHT STUDY by Adam Marsh THE HISTORY OF OUR PLANET AS Like a lot of kids, I was captivated by dinosaurs early on, and I told every one of my teachers since preschool that I was going to be a paleontologist. Even as my peers later decided that they wanted to become astronauts, trapeze artists, doctors, or accountants, I never deviated from my interest. As a paleontologist, I study dead things. Most of what I look at on a daily basis died a long time ago-usually millions of years ago. But recently expired animals also fall under my purview. (How else does one study the evolution of enormous, extinct South American armadillos than by observing the anatomy of an unfortunate armadillo in Texas that chose to cross the road at the wrong time?) Paleontologists juggle an interesting combination of jobs. On any given day, I am an anatomist, chemist, detective, librarian, writer, or even artist. However, the ultimate job of any paleontologist is to tell the story of life on Earth, or at least part of it. My research focuses on understanding the effects of global mass extinction on animals living on land. Specifically, I am studying the long-necked and meat-eating dinosaurs of western North America that span the End-Triassic mass extinction, which occurred around 201 million years ago. As an anatomist, I am looking on these animals' skeletons for features that are shared by distinct evolutionary lineages. As a chemist, I am measuring the amounts of uranium, thorium, and lead in the rocks surrounding the fossils in order to estimate their age. The detective work in paleontology involves putting all of these lines of evidence into a hypothesis that can be tested by additional experiments or fossil discoveries. And the writing component of my job involves extensive literature reviews, which encompass everything from journal articles in foreign languages to maps, as well as conveying my research in compelling nonfiction stories. Paleontology can take a person to amazing places. I conduct my fieldwork along the Colorado Plateau in Arizona, New Mexico, and Utah, and it is one of my favorite things about my job. Fieldwork has taken me to measure and collect rocks and fossils on private lands, in national parks, and on the lands of other sovereignties like the Navajo Nation. Paleontologists may travel across the country and to other continents to visit museum collections and present research to the academic community. In fact, I am writing this from Brazil, where I am studying South American fossils and writing a paper with a co-author; earlier this week, I presented some of my research in Uruguay. Paleontology is a science that provides invaluable insight into deep time. The diversity, disparity, and distribution of the fauna and flora of the planet have changed dramatically in only a few hundred million years, and it's the fossils that can help us understand how. Any fossil you find was once a living organism. It carries within itself evidence of what that animal did, how it grew, how it interacted with its surroundings, how it died, and how it was preserved long enough for you to hold it in your hand. Every fossil tells a story, and it's up to paleontologists to find it and tell it. A GEOLOGIST, OR THE HISTORY OF AN ACADEMIC DISCIPLINE, SUCH AS THE HISTORY OF MEDICINE OR HISTORY OF SCIENCE. YOU MIGHT PURSUE A TRACK AS AN EGYPTOLOGIST OR AS A LINGUIST WHO TRACKS THE EVOLUTION OF LANGUAGE. WHETHER YOUR CALLING IS IN SCIENCE, THE ARTS, OR THE HUMANITIES, YOU'LL FIND THAT HISTORY YIELDS FASCINATING RESEARCH QUESTIONS. TO PROVIDE A GLIMPSE OF THE BREADTH OF OPPORTUNITIES, WE ASKED FOUR GRADUATE STUDENTS IN DIFFERENT DISCIPLINES TO DESCRIBE THEIR RESEARCH. 18 imagine Adam Marsh earned his B.S. in biology and geology at the University of Notre Dame and his M.S. in vertebrate paleontology from the University of Texas at Austin, where he is currently a Ph.D. candidate. In the summers, he works as a paleontologist at Petrified Forest National Park and conducts fieldwork all along the Colorado Plateau.

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Imagine Magazine - Johns Hopkins - November/December 2015

Big Picture
In My Own Words Documentary filmmaker Ken Burns
National Treasure Volunteering at the National Archives
Driving My Future, Exploring the Past The many rewards of genealogy
Past in Focus National History Day
People-Powered Movements Studying revolutions at Phillips Academy Andover
Hooked on History From paleontology to conservation science, four graduate students share their research
This is History My summer at Crow Canyon
The Benefits of Majoring in History
Making History My journey to the inaugural International History Olympiad
Historians in Training The Concord Review Summer Program
The Ultimate Game
In My Own Footsteps Putting my choreography in the spotlight
Selected Opportunities and Resources
Off the Shelf Review of F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby
Word Wise
Exploring Career Options Interview with archaeologist Inna Moore
One Step Ahead Be your own priority
Planning Ahead for College Choosing the best college for your major
Students Review: University of Washington
Mark Your Calendar
Knossos Games

Imagine Magazine - Johns Hopkins - November/December 2015