So, I live in West Virginia and I want to be a paleontologist?

Question

What should I consider being a vertebrate paleontologist or a non vertebrate paleontologist? Which offers more income? I like both and am having a hard time choosing. I like non vertebrate because of trilobites and brachiopods etc. I also like searching for prehistoric bones in caves near my home. Not that I ever found any but it would be neat to find a smilodon or anything else for that matter.

Answer 1

First of all, paleontologists DO NOT got into it for the money. In order to make anything reasonable you have to go all the way and get the PhD and be successful in obtaining research grants and producing new research and getting tenure. Some petroleum companies like to have paleontologists on hand though, and that can be lucrative.

Vertebrate paleontology is far more competitive since only a small percent of things that ever lived had spines. Invertebrate paleontology is less competitive, but, in the same vein as vertebrate paleontology, there is a lot of competition to work on the "popular" ones, like trilobites.

You're going to need to major in geology in college. Very few, if any, school offer separate paleo degrees. But you need the geological background. It will be in grad school in which you choose your vertebrate or invertebrate path.

Answer 2

Major in one and get a minor in the other.