Me and My Rhino*

Environmental & Science Education, STEM, Earth & Space Science, Earth Systems, Geology, Paleontology. Nature of Science

Ed Hessler

Based on a remark made by one of her advisors while they were visiting a field site where Laura Emmet was doing a dig, she decided not to pursue a Ph.D. but instead chose to become a lab and field technician

This is the remark.  “Oh, I wish I could dig, I’ve got to go back inside to write a grant.”

Emmet was recently chosen to be featured in the journal Nature's "Where I Work" series. Emmet who works at the Gray Fossil Site and Museum in Gray, Tennessee is shown working, knees on the ground, on the removal of a fossil rhinoceros.

Her attitude is going to serve her well. Writer Jack Leeming caught it in the first paragraph of the short report. "It’s going to take me three years to unearth this rhinoceros fossil, but that’s okay — he’s been waiting five million years for me to come along. "

The report discusses the rhino, a new species and his hard life but he lived to be about 20 years old, old for rhinos. It also includes how the site was found, what it once was, and the richness of its fossils.

You can read the Nature article as well as to learn more how Emmet considers her current work. The link to the Gray Fossil Museum has more information about the site and its work.

 

* Title from Leeming's article for Nature.