Circum-Scientific questions

[ekaterina A <a_ekaterina@yahoo.com>]

I would be very much obliged if you all could
volunteer to answer some plain questions specifically
regarding certain organizational aspects of
Vertebrate/ Dinosaur paleontology. I just want to
compare it with certain other areas of biological
studies.

1) In the countries were vertebrate paleontology is
actively pursued does it always attract the best
minds/ high IQ people or does it generally attract
somewhat second rate intellect compared to areas like
molecular evolution, Biochemistry and cell biology?

2) What is the average salary of a Dinosaur
paleontologist with a PhD degree having position of an
assistant professor or approximate equivalents there
off? Do dinosaur paleontologist get more money than
other vertebrate paleotologists, say for example those
working on early synapsids or non-tetrapods.

3) Is there a general tendency for vertebrate
paleotologists to be uncommunicative regarding their
results to their peers and the lay public. Also a is
there a great sense of competitiveness regarding their
findings with respect to others in the field.

4) Other than variable star astronomy, dinosaur
paleotology can probably boast of the largest number
of educated amateurs. Do these amateurs have a bigger
picture of the underlying evolutionary biology and
context of their interests in dinosaurs. Or is it
merely a fascination for something strange.

5) Do Dinosaur paleotologists on an average have a
real sense of context of their studies with respect to
the rest of biology?

thanks for any gleanings in this regard
EA


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