A Q&A with Adele Pentland, Vertebrate Palaeontologist and Host of 'Pals in Palaeo' Podcast
Adele with Muttaburrasaurus in Australia
At Dinosaur Trips, we’re not just interested in dinosaurs and prehistoric life, we’re also interested in the history of paleontology, the paleontologists across generations who have shaped our understanding and appreciation for prehistoric life, and the incredible adventures that are tied to some of the most exciting discoveries in paleontology history.
Which begs the question: How do you become a paleontologist?
To learn more, Dinosaur Trips founder & director Zach Vanasse is chatting with people from all across the paleontology spectrum to learn more about what it’s like becoming and working as a paleontologist.
For this special three-part edition of ‘How to Become a Paleontologist,’ Zach got to talk to Adele Pentland, Australian Vertebrate Palaeontologist, expert in Australian Pterosaurs, and host of the excellent and entertaining ‘Pals in Palaeo’ podcast.
Zach Vanasse: In 2023, Australia has made a lot of headlines when it comes to paleontology. It seems to have found an audience at this point that people now recognize there’s incredible dinosaur tourism experience to be had in Australia. Is that something you’re noticing on the ground as a paleontologist working in Australia?
Yeah it’s a really big thing in my neck of the woods, as well down in South Australia, where you can find some of the first multicellular life. They’re building infrastructure to try and curate and protect the fossils that they find in that area as well.
For some of our little towns, where the population is like a thousand people and sometimes less, palaeo-tourism is getting people out to regional museums and it’s becoming a really big drawcard, and that’s a growing part of my work.
I really value working with small regional museums, because you’re only dealing with a relatively small team of people, so you can speak directly with the people who are going to help put the display together. And there’s a big emphasis on putting the fossil out on display rather than trying to make a cast. It’s like, just put the real thing out on display. Let people enjoy and see it.
Adele Pentland and fellow fossil hunters prospecting for dinosaur fossils in the field in Australia
And I think another part of why Australia’s palaeo-tourism scene is in this growth period is because, for travellers, there’s a chance you get to make a genuine discovery when you’re taking part in a dig. And it seems like there’s a great opportunity for that in Australia. One of the things I find so interesting about your podcast is that you’re talking to people who have actually discovered species and named dinosaur species.
Yeah, absolutely. And I guess that’s another big thing that I want to do with the podcast is demonstrate to people that there’s still new discoveries being made and that our understanding of palaeontology can shift with the discovery of just one fossil. One bone even, can flip how we see things. So it’s a really exciting field, and there’s a bunch of different ways to sort of contribute and be a part of it.
Do you have a favourite fossil find, either one that you’ve talked about on the podcast so far or are going to be talking about in a future episode?
Look, my personal favorite fossil discovery – and I’m a bit of a traitor for saying this – is from when I was on a dinosaur dig and I noticed one of our other palaeos had put these chunks of this really coarse grained rock in the spoil pile. And it was the coarsest grain rock I’d seen at the site the entire time.
I basically ran over, grabbed it, then started wet sieving it. And I found the tooth of a sauropod! There’s a video of me just running around, I’m bouncing off the walls and I’m holding this lump and you can see the tip of the tooth sticking out. It ended up being a tooth with a wear facet; like a whole root.
It’s probably about as long as your finger. You couldn’t wipe the smile off my face for hours.
I was just so giddy, full of excitement, full of beans. So that’s my favourite. (Laughing) But I know that I should say Ferrodraco, which is the species of pterosaur that I named!
If people want to hear all about the one that you named, there’s an episode of the podcast all about it. It’s one of my favourite episodes so far for sure!
