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Dr. John Flynn
 Position:
MacArthur Curator of Fossil Mammals
Department of Geology
Education:
B.A., Yale University, CT, 1977
Ph.D., Columbia University, NY, 1983
Field Museum staff since:
1988
The Interview
What exactly does a paleontologist study?
The entire history of life on earth, over the known record of the last 3.5 billion years.
Why did you decide to become a paleontologist?
I had a really great teacher in college; he made geology and paleontology interesting and exciting. Then I went out on a real dig. It was tough work, and sometimes boring, but the fossils we discovered made it exciting and worth all of the hard work.
What kind of schooling did you have?
After graduating from college I went to graduate school to study geology, biology and paleontology and received a Ph.D. from Columbia University in New York.
Is most of your work in the field, or in a laboratory?
A bit of both, I spend 2 to 3 months a year in the field and much of my time in the laboratory looking at the fossils, describing and understanding them.
When and where do you go out into the field?
Usually I go twice a year for 3 to 6 weeks each trip. I have done field work in the United States, in Wyoming, Colorado, Montana, Texas and California. I also work in other countries: Madagascar (Africa), Chile and Colombia (South America), and Mexico (Central America).
What kinds of fossils have you discovered?
I specialize in mammals, so most discoveries by me or my expedition teams include our extinct relatives. Some examples include: early carnivores from Wyoming, ancient horses from Baja California, Mexico, and a wide variety of plant-eating marsupials, rodents, armadillos and ungulates (hoofed-herbivorous mammals) from the Andes mountains in South America.
What is the largest fossil you've ever discovered?
Parts of the skeleton of a giant plant-eating dinosaur, Bothriospondylus (a relative of Brachiosaurus) from the Jurassic (about 160 million years ago) of Madagascar. And from the same place we found the smallest fossil- an important Jurassic mammal jaw with 3 teeth, each only half the size of a grain of rice! Our team named that mammal Ambondro mahabo, in 1999, after the place it was discovered.
Do you always work in foreign countries?
Not always, I first collected fossils in Colorado and Wyoming, where I continue to run expeditions whenever I can. But many exciting discoveries in paleontology come from places that haven't been explored much, like Madagascar or the Andes mountains. And because science is international, we can work closely with students and scientists in those countries. This helps out expeditions and allows us to help teach our friends there.
What is your favorite fossil discovery?
That's a hard question, as our teams have found more than 50 new species of fossil mammals and reptiles over the years. Right now, I'm very excited about our discoveries of what may be the oldest dinosaurs in the world- 230 million year old prosauropods from Madagascar. And I have a special love of a 3 inch long, 20 million year old monkey skull from Chile- the best and oldest fossil monkey skull ever found in South America.
Why are fossils found in some places and not in others?
The chances of a plant or animal becoming a fossil after it dies are very rare, so finding it is even rarer. Paleontologists try to go to places with rocks of the right age and conditions to preserve a fossil at the time it died, and where there isn't so much plant cover today that we can't see the rocks.
How does paleontology differ from archeology?
Paleontology is the study of all life, archeology is the study of human remains and cultures only.
What kind of tools do you use at a dig?
Rock hammers, chisels, picks, needles, brooms, dental tools, magnifiers, special glues and even rock saws.
You don't always dig at a dig, do you? What are some of the procedures for getting fossils out of the earth without damaging them?
We often wrap plaster around the delicate fossils to protect them. It forms a hard plaster cast around the fossil, just like when a doctor protects a broken leg with a cast.
How do you determine the age of bones?
The changes in fossils actually are some of the best ways to tell geologic time. We also use a variety of other techniques to date the material around the fossils, including radioactive dating, paleomagnetism (a lab I run here at the museum) and pollen dating.
What are some things we can do as kids to prepare to become scientists?
One of the most important things is to observe nature. There are many interesting things going on around you, even in your backyard, that you can observe and learn from. For example: ant behavior, bird migrations, plant growth, or the effects of water or weather on rocks.
What are the best subjects to study to become a paleontologist?
Many of the subjects you are studying now are useful, such as math, all sciences (especially biology and the earth sciences), persuasive writing and foreign languages. My favorite classes in high school actually were earth sciences and English (I love rocks and books!).
Would being able to study any foreign languages be helpful to a paleontologist? Which ones?
Science is international, so foreign languages are very helpful for several reasons. First, it is important to be able to speak the language of the countries where you do field work. Second, it will help you communicate with colleagues from other countries. And third, scientific papers, with important information, are sometimes written in other languages. The most widely used languages are Spanish, French, German and English.
How can you tell one bone from another?
We learn to identify bones by their shape, size and by comparing them to other bones we are familiar with. This is especially important when trying to find and excavate a bone that has just a little part of it poking out of the earth's surface.
What do you like best about your job?
Doing field work and the thrill of discovering something new. Going to spectacular or interesting places and learning more about the history of life on our planet is amazingly rewarding.
What is the hardest part of your job?
It is important to be patient as a scientist. A lot of hard work goes into making big results and getting results in the laboratory. Plus, like many jobs, ther are lots of meetings to go to and paperwork to fill out, taking time away from doing and teaching about science.
What do you do in your job?
As a curator I do scientific research and publish studies useful to other scientists and the public. I am responsible for taking care of about 100,000 fossils (out of more than 3 million here at the museum) that are used in exhibits and are studied by scientists around the world. I run expeditions to make new discoveries and bring new fossils back to the museum; teach college courses; and talk to visitors at the museum. As the chairman of the Geology Department I oversee a staff of 28 and manage a budget of over $2,000,000 (including salaries) each year. But I couldn't do my job without great people to help me. The specialists I work with include artists, secretaries, lab assistants and preparators (people who help collect, clean and preserve the fossils).
Based on the research of you and your colleagues over the years, can we positively conclude that if Fred Flinstone really existed he could not have had a pet dinosaur?
A: Yes. Humans and dinosaurs NEVER lived at the same time. Dinosaurs went extinct 65 million years ago, more than 60 million years before the oldest close human ancestors.
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