Paleontologist Classification

[Tompaleo@aol.com]

It seems that still more people were offended  by my description of a Type 1
paleontologist. Since I was trying to be as brief as possible I failed to
acknoweledge persons who ,based on my original classification, may feel that
I did not regard them as Type 1's. My apologies to all of you.  I will now
revise my definition of Type 1's.

Type 1 Professional Paleontologist:

A paleontologist who by formal or informal  education, training, experience
and independant researchk have contributed to the benefit and advancement of
paleontology. These often are people who hold degrees in some aspect of
paleontology but are not limited to it. Many professionals have become so
solely by the quality, expertise and quantity of their contributions and may
or may not be paid for it.

This is the best I could think of on short notice since I have been answering
inquiries and responses to my original posting. Let me reiterate.

          I DID NOT INTEND TO OFFEND ANYONE WHO EXPLICITLY OR IMPLICITLY COULD
 BE CATEGORIZED AS TYPE 1-3! I wanted to draw attention to the fact that the
evil TYPE 4's are the Nemesis of us all and that categorizing ameteurs with
these (Type 4) vermin does a disservice to our science. Anyone who contributes
 to and advances paleontology should fall somewhere withn the first three
types! Any outgroup to the "true paleontologist"  (Type 1-3) is a TYPE 4. So
let's address the problem of how to deal with them.

I wish to thank several individuals who have contacted me privately for
clarification or constructive criticism in regards to this and who will
remain anonymous.

I sure hope this covers everybody satifactorily:)

                                        Regards,
                                        Thomas R. Lipka
                                        Paleontological/Geological Studies
                                        Tompaleo@aol.com