Dr. Denver Fowler is the curator of the Badlands Dinosaur Museum at the Dickinson Museum Center. In this interview, Taylor and Denver talk about his diverse paleontology experiences, from digging up dinosaur fossils to working as an associate producer on a TV series called Prehistoric Park. Here’s a quick summary!

On his life as a curator:

• As a curator, he does a lot of typical paleontology jobs – research, collections management, exhibit design, fossil preparation, and field work
• His favorite part of his job is field work but he also enjoys researching and discovering new things

On realizing he wanted to be a paleontologist:

• Always loved animals as a kid – enjoyed interacting with and studying them
• Found a fossil on the beach when he was 5 and spent time fossil hunting as a kid
• Pursued a geology undergraduate degree and then obtained a Master’s, followed by a Ph.D.
• Has also worked in television on the show “Prehistoric Park”

On working on “Prehistoric Park”:

• Started as the specialist researcher and did a bunch of other research on other projects
• Found himself in an associate producer role, where he wrote some of the content, supervised the sculpting of the models of the animals, and made sure that the scientific content was accurate

On inaccuracies in paleontology:

• Science builds on previous work – “almost everything you read is probably wrong, in science”
• Assumes that everything that’s been written is probably wrong when approaching research
• Sobering to realize that everything you publish may be discovered to be wrong, but also means that you shouldn’t feel bad about doubting others’ work or building upon it

On his field work as a paleontologist:

• The excitement of finding something awesome often wears off after publishing it
• Found a juvenile triceratops skull
• Found a dinosaur nesting site in the Hell Creek – this is special because you don’t typically find nests in the Hell Creek
• To do field work, he gets a permit, and then goes prospecting
• The sun and heat can get really tiresome and exhausting when doing field work
• If a member of the public finds something, they should take a photograph of it and report it

On getting started on a career in paleontology:

• There aren’t many jobs in paleontology, but the hardest working people do have a chance of getting a job
• Some growing fields are paleo-monitoring – making sure that people don’t destroy fossils while digging other things
• Studying science in school is important if you want to pursue a career in paleontology
• If you have an interest in paleontology and a skill or an interest in a particular type of science, there is usually a niche somewhere in paleontology where you can use your skills

Following and supporting Denver & the Dickinson Museum Center:

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