PALAEONTOLOGY[online]

Tag: Chloe Marquart

Chloe is a vertebrate palaeontologist whose research focuses on dinosaurs and crocodilians. She has just completed her PhD at the University of Cambridge, UK, probing the methods used to define species in these groups. She is also interested in the history of palaeontology and the role of human bias in science. As someone who never outgrew the ‘dino phase’, she still enthuses about the ‘terrible lizards’ to all who will listen — usually unsuspecting museum visitors.

by Chloe Marquart1 When I tell the average stranger that I'm a palaeontologist, the first question that I'm inevitably asked is: "Like Ross from Friends?" The second is: "Have you named any dinosaurs?" The naming of fossils is actually a very small part of the work that palaeontologists do, but it often garners the most attention from the press and public. It can be difficult for people to understand how scientists can suddenly decide that a well-known, often iconic name has never 'existed' - in a scientific sense, at least. Many grown adults still mourn the loss of their beloved Brontosaurus (more on him later), and in the past few years, campaigns were begun to ‘Save Triceratops’ when it was declared that this dinosaur and Torosaurus might be the same animal (Fig. 2). Although...