RE: paleonet Stanford position open, spotted in Nature

["Andy Rindsberg" <arindsberg@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Peter Roopnarine wrote,
> Well, let's hope that is not true. Actually, while the geological 
> collections here at CAS receive very little attention from Stanford 
> geologists, the biological collections have in recent years become an
important resource for 
them again (the long, slow, painful realization that you can't do biology 
without organisms). From what I understand, collections-based research is on

the table for this position.

I was an undergrad at Stanford during the 1970's, when the systematic
collections were removed to Berkeley and San Francisco. Stanford had been
strong in systematics (fish, plants, shells, marine life, fossils) but the
grand old systematists like Myra Keen were, for the most part, not being
replaced, and their collections were being transferred in an orderly
fashion. I was honored that Norm Silberling asked an undergraduate's opinion
of the Paleo Collection's move. The idea was to safeguard and make available
collections that would otherwise have been left without effective curation,
but it was not without a sense of loss. And it wasn't as if the specimens
were going very far. Researchers who needed to use the collections would
still be able to take day trips to Berkeley and San Francisco. San Francisco
is accessible by train and bus, and Berkeley by a shuttle bus. And the
specimens were placed in good hands.

Having the collections at Stanford made a big difference in my education. I
was able to consult type and other specimens of Tertiary Leptopecten (kelp
scallops) for a term paper in Invertebrate Paleontology, learning that there
is a big difference between real objects and published descriptions none of
which match one another. In an act of trust that touches me to this day, the
faculty allowed me to study at a work table in the non-type paleo
collection, which allowed me to see hundreds of drawers of invertebrate
fossils in my early twenties -- a good time to absorb such information. The
interest in kelp scallops led to an interest in fossil seaweed (also present
in the collection), a paper chase in libraries scattered across campus, and
then to trace fossils, many of which were originally described as fossil
seaweeds. Which eventually led to me becoming an ichnologist. Thank you for
reminding me of some pleasant experiences.

How much does it matter that some universities have collections and others
do not? A poorly tended collection, used for nothing and dismissed as worse
than useless by faculty, sends a negative message to students about
paleontology. Better to send such collections where they are wanted and
needed. How valuable are collections in education? Very, for some students.
Stanford's teaching collection included Burgess and Solnhofen fossils whose
fine scale and details cannot be fully appreciated in photos. I learned a
lot, but most of the students never knew what they missed. They had other
experiences.

We can ask, Doesn't every student need such contact with real material? But
that's the wrong question, since those who write history will necessarily
have a background that emphasizes fossils as data and images more than as
pieces of solid rock. Compare how a previous generation bemoaned the lack of
versatility that students would have if they did not learn proper planetable
and alidade technique. So what? Students now learn GIS and remote-imagery
techniques and never miss the old surveying methods. They don't need to
draft maps with a rapidograph and lettering set either. It's not a question
so much of what was better, as what survived (hand lettering, for instance,
ranged from glorious to abysmal compared with safe but bland digital
lettering). And when they write the history of science for this period, they
will see it from their own viewpoint. They may decide that seeing thousands
of images is better than holding a few hundred specimens. It will have been
what they did for *their* education, you see.

There is no need for all of us to have the same antecedents or destinations.
Collections are still present at some institutions, gone from others: So be
it: This will produce a greater diversity of paleontologists, some who know
fossils by heft and feel, others by sight. As our field contracts, we need
to remind one another now and then not to specialize too much, to appreciate
the survivors and not razz those who fall by the way, and not to specialize
in just a few aspects of the field. If we all rush to one side of the boat,
it will tip over. 

Andrew K. Rindsberg
Geological Survey of Alabama

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