Here’s how I got my start in research. Through a mentorship program, I started volunteering at the Oklahoma Museum of Natural History in the spring of 1992, when I was a junior in high school.

Tiny Titan, a temporary exhibit about the Snowmass Haplocanthosaurus project, opened at the Western Science Center in Hemet, California, last night. How? Why? Read on. Things have been quieter this year on the Haplo front than they were in 2018, for many reasons.

{.size-large .wp-image-16799 .aligncenter loading=“lazy” attachment-id=“16799” permalink=“http://svpow.com/2019/11/11/the-other-side-of-the-other-side-of-that-one-cool-specimen/dinosaur-journey-cut-and-polished-vert-original-section/” orig-file=“https://svpow.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/11/dinosaur-journey-cut-and-polished-vert-original-section.jpg” orig-size=“1416,1062” comments-opened=“1”

Unworn: {.size-large .wp-image-16745 .aligncenter loading=“lazy” attachment-id=“16745” permalink=“http://svpow.com/2019/11/02/worn-and-unworn-camarasaurus-teeth-in-the-collections-at-dinosaur-national-monument/dino-collections-unworn-camarasaurus-tooth/” orig-file=“https://svpow.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/10/dino-collections-unworn-camarasaurus-tooth.jpg” orig-size=“3200,2400” comments-opened=“1”

{.size-large .wp-image-16741 .aligncenter loading=“lazy” attachment-id=“16741” permalink=“http://svpow.com/2019/10/27/brachiosaurus-and-human-metacarpals-compared/brachiosaurus-and-human-metacarpals-compared/” orig-file=“https://svpow.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/10/brachiosaurus-and-human-metacarpals-compared.jpg” orig-size=“2100,2800” comments-opened=“1” image-meta=“{"aperture":"1.8","credit":"","camera":"iPhone

I don’t know if this exists in the US, but here in Britain it’s common for kids in Year 11 at school (age 15 or 16) to have a week allocated where they find a position (usually unpaid) and do some work outside the school. It’s called “work experience”. A friend of a friend has a son that age, and he wants to be a palaeontologist. I was asked if I had any advice. Here’s what I wrote, lightly edited: I hope it’s useful to other enthusiastic kids.

After this year’s SVPCA, Vicki and London and I spent a few days with the Taylor family in the lovely village of Ruardean. It wasn’t all faffing about with the Iguanodon pelvis, the above photo notwithstanding.

Matt and I are about to submit a paper. One of the journals we considered — and would have really liked in many respects — turned out to use the CC By-NC-SA license. This is a a very well-intentioned licence that allows free use except for commercial purposes, and which imposes the same licence on all derivative works. While that sounds good, there are solid reasons to prefer the simpler CC By licence.

{.size-large .wp-image-16693 .aligncenter loading=“lazy” attachment-id=“16693” permalink=“http://svpow.com/2019/10/12/a-nice-pneumatic-allosaurus-cervical/pneumatic-allosaurus-cervical/” orig-file=“https://svpow.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/10/pneumatic-allosaurus-cervical.jpg” orig-size=“2000,1500” comments-opened=“1” image-meta=“{"aperture":"1.8","credit":"","camera":"iPhone

{.size-large .wp-image-16680 .aligncenter attachment-id=“16680” permalink=“http://svpow.com/2019/10/07/parasaurolophus-sculpture-by-brian-engh/parasaurolophus-sculpture-by-brian-engh-1/” orig-file=“https://svpow.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/10/parasaurolophus-sculpture-by-brian-engh-1.jpg” orig-size=“1800,1350” comments-opened=“1” image-meta=“{"aperture":"1.8","credit":"","camera":"iPhone