What does a paleontologist study?

They also reconstruct early communities and their environments and try to determine what changes have led to the current time. They look particularly closely at major extinction events of the past and try to draw conclusions that will assist us in the modern world as global climates, and natural environments change.

Many paleontologists do a lot of their work out in the field in a wide variety of different environments and ecosystems. Their work can take them to deserts, mountain tops, tundras, swamps, and everything else in between.

In these areas, they perform excavations and collect fossils of different animal and plant species. Rock succession is given close attention during excavation so that the position of each fossil can be accurately determined. Rocks are also useful to paleontologists in that they provide more information on the environments the fossilized animal once lived in.

Most paleontologists work for museums and universities, and some even for federal or state government agencies and private companies.

In the university setting, paleontologists teach students and perform research in the field. Invertebrate paleontologists are typically in the geology department of a university, while vertebrate paleontologists and paleobotanists (plant fossil scientists) are more often members of a biology department.

Tasks of paleontologists employed by museums include research in the field and in labs, curating the museum's fossil collections, designing elements of exhibits, and public education of paleontological topics. They are mainly employed by natural history museums.