Sidebar: Jurrasic Lark

Some paleontology and fossil myths are ripe for busting. Here’s a list of common misperceptions:

• Paleontologists and archaeologists study the same thing. 
Truth: Archaeology is the study of the remains of human life and culture. Paleontology is the study of the fossil remains of all life, including plants, fungi, invertebrates, or vertebrates.

• All dinosaurs are fossils. Truth: Birds are a lineage of dinosaurs known as theropods, a group including Tyrannosaurus and Velociraptor. Paleontologists have found both beasts to be more closely related to today’s birds than to other dinosaurs such as Triceratops or Stegosaurus.

• Paleontology is an historical science. Truth: While paleontology deals with the examination of the fossil record, it is also a nomothetic science, meaning that it investigates natural laws and causal relationships. Paleontologists work as detectives to uncover the past but also may generate hypotheses about the future and how biological evolution works.

• Fossils are rare. Truth: “If you go to places where there are fossils, they tend to be all over the place,” says Mihlbachler. What is rare, he says, is discovering a complete fossil specimen like the ones on display at a museum.

• Evolution can be depicted as a ladder, with humans at the top. 
Truth:  Evolutionary history marks branching events and the “human branch” is neither higher nor lower than that of an insect or bacterium.  

• Paleontologists spend most of their time in exotic locales. Truth: “People think we’re all a bunch of Indiana Jones types,” says Mihlbachler. “Ninety percent of the time is spent in an office, writing papers and working with data.”  

• Prehistoric plants and animals were huge. Truth: Paleontologists study tiny fossil bones and teeth. “People think there were gigantic plants and colossal spiders,” says Solounias. “I think it’s from Hollywood.”

• Paleontological studies are made in the field. Truth: Most discoveries are made in museum collections, which contain unstudied fossils.

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