Re: graduate school

["Thomas R. Holtz, Jr." <th81@umail.umd.edu>]

At 07:14 PM 6/3/99 MDT, Caleb Lewis wrote:
>Gang,
>
>   When going to get one's MsC and PhD in graduate school, and they desire to
>become a paleontologist who studies dinosaurs, do they specifically get their
>PhD in dinosaur paleontology, or jsut in vertebrate paleontology and then
>specialize in dinosaurs?

Neither, in fact.  You get your PhD in the name of the Department of which
you are a part (Geology, Geology & Geophysics, Biology, Zoology, Integrative
Biology, Evolutionary Biology, etc.: depends on how the university divideds
up the earth and life sciences, and in which department you are enrolled).

It is the topic which will (hopefully) be on vert. paleo.

To pick non-random example out of a hat, my Ph.D. is through the Department
of Geology & Geophysics, but the title was "On an unusual structure of the
metatarsus of Theropoda (Archosauria: Dinosauria: Sauischia) of the
Cretaceous."  Within a few years of me there were other vert. paleo.,
invert. paleo., stratigraphy and sedimentation, igneous petrology, climate
modelling, planetary geology, etc. dissertations in the same department.

Thomas R. Holtz, Jr.
Vertebrate Paleontologist     Webpage: http://www.geol.umd.edu
Dept. of Geology              Email:tholtz@geol.umd.edu
University of Maryland        Phone:301-405-4084
College Park, MD  20742       Fax:  301-314-9661