Re: Predictions for the future!?! (posted for R.W. Aurisano)

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From: rwaurisano@amoco.com
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Date: Wed, 6 Sep 95 08:20:51 -0500
Subject: Re: Predictions for the future!?! (posted for R. Kaesler)
To: paleonet-owner@nhm.ac.uk


     Roger -

     That was very well put.  The concerns that you raise should be in the
     forefront of the thinking of all paleontologists today.  How do we
     ensure that new information gleaned from new studies of real fossils
     extracted from real rocks happens?  I think, as much as some of us
     hate to admit it, the need to earn a living, to eat and feed and
     support our families is the main driver of what gets done.
     Accomplishing magnificent things with our current databases, clearly
     communicating the value of those accomplishments, and making the
     connection as to future needs and problems to be solved with new
     information in databases is a necessity.  Publicizing what we have
     done, what we do and what we can do in simple language in business
     journals - the reading materials of choice of the decision makers in
     industry - is important.  Why not get something in the Reader's Digest
     too, while we are at it?  Perhaps what we need is a committee composed
     of representatives of each of the paleontological and neontological
     organizations of the world spearheading an organized effort to do
     something like this.

     Regards,

     Richard W. Aurisano
     Amoco Exploration and Production Technology Group
     Applied Paleontological Technologies
     501 Westlake Park Blvd.
     P.O. Box 3092
     Houston, Texas  77253-3092
     Office no.  (713)366-2369,  Fax: (713)366-7416


______________________________ Reply Separator _________________________________
Subject: Re: Predictions for the future!?! (posted for R. Kaesler)
Author:  paleonet-owner (paleonet-owner@nhm.ac.uk) at unix,in
Date:    9/6/95 2:30 AM


Date: Tue, 05 Sep 1995 10:19:17 -0500 (CDT)
Date-warning: Date header was inserted by KUHUB.CC.UKANS.EDU
From: kaesler@KUHUB.CC.UKANS.EDU (Roger L. Kaesler)
Subject: Re: Predictions for the future!?!
To: paleonet-owner@nhm.ac.uk
MIME-version: 1.0
Status: O

Dear colleagues:

Norm MacLeod has raised some interesting questions about the directions of
paleontological research.  Where are we going in the 90s?  What will be the
new directions in the last half of this decade and the coming century?  I
wish our focus could be more work in which we try to understand morphology,
paleoecology, and all that.  I also wish we could do more with the
geochemical side of taphonomy--that is, diagenesis of fossils.  I fear,
however, that much of our work will be about data bases.

I spend a great deal of my time and effort on data bases, a topic I hope to
address in detail on PaleoNet in a couple of weeks when I have some things
to report.  Because I spend so much time at this, it might seem strange
that I say I fear our emphasis will be on data bases.  Here is why.  We
paleontologists have put together a lot of really good information about
all aspects of fossils.  At the NAPC meeting in Boulder, Dave Raup chided
us for being the only science that, after 150 years of intense effort,
still says that our data are not good.  Dave is right.  Our data are good,
and employing them properly can help us answer a lot of questions.

The fact is, however, that putting paleontological data into a data base so
they can be used by others is not really paleontology.  Such activity is of
vital importance, but it is better regarded as information science.
Paleontology will be in trouble if too many of us spend a lot of time
organizing old data and very little time generating new information.  We
have got to make sure that the paleontologists of the coming decades study
fossils and things about fossils and that they continue to concern
themselves with getting new information.  We must build on the information
collected by past generations, but if we cease to investigate new problems
in the field with real fossils collected from real rocks, we will find
ourselves becoming the librarians of the fossil record, and our science
will wither.

Best wishes,

Roger

--
Roger L. Kaesler
Paleontological Institute
The University of Kansas
121 Lindley Hall
Lawrence, Kansas 66045-2911
(913) 864-3338 = telephone
(913) 864-5276 = FAX