Interview with Paleontologist: Dana Ehret

Dr. Dana Ehret was born and raised ‘Down the Shore’ in Spring Lake Heights, New Jersey. His interest in paleontology started at a young age, when his dad and uncles would take him shark tooth collecting.  Dana attended Stockton University where he received a B.S. in Marine Biology. While at Stockton, Dana was mentored by paleontologist Dr. Roger Wood who introduced him to paleontology as a career and fossil turtles. Dana then attended the University of Florida where he received a M.S. in Geology with a minor in Wildlife Ecology and Conservation and his Ph.D. in Interdisciplinary Ecology. His Master’s work focused on growth and skeletochronology in extinct tortoises from the Nebraska Badlands, while his Ph.D. looked at the macroevolution of body size in the megatoothed sharks. Dana has worked as the Curator of Paleontology at the University of Alabama and is now the Assistant Curator of Natural History for the New Jersey State Museum. His research focuses on the evolution and taxonomy of lamniform sharks and turtles, particularly in the Eastern US.

Question 1: What was your earliest sign of interest in paleontology that you can remember? 

DE: I grew up in Spring Lake Heights, New Jersey and my parents were from Wall Township. Going back to the 1960s my family went fossil shark tooth collecting at Shark River Park. My uncles first took me when I was about 5 years old. I still have those teeth on my office desk! Finding prehistoric shark teeth in a river just down the road from my grandparent’s house was mind boggling!

My second memory was my grandmother. She drove a school bus and in the summers she would take special needs students to Princeton. Sometimes I would tag along and she would take me to the Princeton University museum. The Cervalces scotti skeleton on display there was the first fossil skeleton I ever remember seeing in person. It’s now at the NJ State Museum, where I work, so I see it every day!

Question 2: Did you have any professionals or family members who served as role models when you were younger? Do you still have any now?

DE: My family was VERY supportive of my interests but didn’t have any formal training in the sciences. I credit two elementary school teachers with fostering my love of science. First, my second grade teacher, Ms. Ardythe Wright. She taught me how to grow avocado trees from pits and gave me a deep respect for natural history. The second was Mr. Rich Muhlenbruck, my 7^th and 8^th grade science and history teacher. He was AMAZING! We are still good friends and go to lunch whenever we can get together.

Growing up, I never dreamed that I could actually be a paleontologist. I went to Stockton University (then The Richard Stockton College of New Jersey) for undergrad and one of the first classes I took was a general studies ‘Dinosaurs’ class taught by Dr. Roger Wood. He was also assigned as my undergrad advisor. During our first meeting he asked what I wanted to do with my life and I said, “I’d love to be a paleontologist but that’s what old guys on tv do.” He laughed and said, “If that’s what you want to do, then do it.” 13 years of college later, I did it.

Helping tag a Nile Crocodile in St. Lucia, South Africa

Question 3: Was there anything you did or learned as you were on your way to your current career that you feel got you to where you are? By this I mean any sort of field experience, a class, networking with the right people, or possibly something different or all three?

DE: I was VERY lucky with my school choices. Undergrad work and field trips really prepared me for my career. I credit Roger Wood and Dr. Margaret Lewis at Stockton University for really giving me a leg up as an undergraduate student. Roger comes from paleontology ‘royalty’, both his father, Albert Wood, and his uncle, H.E. Wood were well-known and respected paleontologists. I did an undergrad research project with Roger on fossil turtles from the Cretaceous of Wyoming and he took me to the Academy of Natural Sciences, the American Museum of Natural History, and the Smithsonian and taught me the proper research methods.

Question 4: Is the field of paleontology different now than from when you started as far as you can tell?  What would your advice be to anyone trying to make a career in paleontology (or science in general for that matter) now?

DE: YES!! I was very lucky with my career trajectory. I went to Stockton to study Marine Biology and met two AMAZING paleontologists that took me under their wing. For graduate school I was accepted into the Geological Sciences program at the University of Florida without an advisor. I was very fortunate to have Dr. Bruce MacFadden accept me as his Masters student after I started. If I had to do it all over again, there is NO way I would’ve done it the same way! These days, I feel that undergraduate students really need to reach out to potential graduate advisors well in advance. My first couple of SVP meetings, there were very few undergrad presentations (and they were all posters.) Today, I see AMAZING talks by undergrad researchers and I’m just blown away! When I talk to undergraduate students, my advice is: get involved! Volunteer, find internships, do a senior thesis project! Anything you can do to set yourself apart. I was lucky enough to be a co-author on a paper as an undergrad because I did an internship and I definitely think it set me apart.

Showing visitors fossils at the Alabama Museum of Natural History for National Fossil Day

Question 5: What was or is your favorite project so far?  Would you be able to tell us about some of your current projects?

DE: My favorite, hands down, was my work on white shark evolution. This was the majority of my PhD work at the University of Florida. I was honored to be asked to describe an extinct species of white shark from the Miocene of the Pacific Basin, Carcharodon hubbelli. It was based on a set of articulated jaws, teeth and vertebrae from Peru that had been in the private collections of Dr. Gordon Hubbell, but donated to the Florida Museum of Natural History. I described the anatomy, growth and paleobiology of this shark, took two trips to Peru and had three papers (two featured articles) come out of the research. I also survived an 8.0 earthquake during one Peruvian trip!

As for current research, my ‘pet project’ now is a new genus of Cretaceous sea turtle from Tennessee. This new turtle is VERY weird and I have a very fun scientific name picked out! I can’t tell you anymore quite yet.

Studying the fossilized jaws of the late Miocene shark, Carcharodon hastalis, at the Museo de Historia Natural de la Universidad Nacional Mayor de San Marcos in Lima, Peru

Question 6: Do you have a favorite destination when it comes to fossils?  Why?

DE: I have to say, I worked at the University of Alabama/Alabama Museum of Natural History for five years. The late Cretaceous outcrops in Alabama are AMAZING!! The museum owns 140 acres of Campanian chalk called the Harrell Station Paleontological Site. The region has produced fossils including sharks, fishes, mosasaurs, dinosaurs, pterosaurs, and lots of invertebrates. The southeastern Gulf Coast of the United States is an overlooked source of amazing fossils.

Searching for late Cretaceous fossils with students at the Harrell Station Paleontological Site in Dallas County, Alabama

Question 7: A popular image of paleontologists is that they are constantly out in the field digging up fossils, which is true to an extent.  What people don’t realize sometimes is that a lot of paleontology work is conducted in a lab as well.  In your experience, how much of your projects (in general) take place in the field, and how much are in the lab?

DE: While collecting fossils is fun and exciting, you then need to prepare, catalogue and describe the specimens. Even though probably 75% of my job duties are in a museum; in the lab, doing outreach, designing exhibits, working on papers, I try to get out in field at any chance I get. Many times I go after work, on weekends and on vacation. When people ask me what I do for fun, I say: Go fossiling! While my job title is Asstistant Curator, paleontology is also my passion. Paleontologists typically have a ‘field season’ which is typically in the spring/summer months. The rest of the year is spent writing, prepping, cataloguing, etc. I would also argue that outreach is an essential part of our field. I’m very, very active on social media, giving talks, working in our public lab, etc.

Question 8: You are most known for your work on turtles and sharks.  Did you choose these subjects for your work or did it “choose you” in a sense?

DE: Most of my colleagues that study both fossil and living turtles can trace their love of turtles back to their earliest memories. My background in turtles came from my undergraduate advisor, Dr. Roger Wood. Roger is a legendary turtle researcher, having described arguably the largest turtle ever, Stupendemys geographicus. When I arrived at the University of Florida, Dr. Bruce MacFadden had a project involving fossil tortoises and I was a perfect fit. My background in turtle conservation also lead to many other seasonal jobs in state and federal agencies. I always joke that I became interested in fossil sharks for ‘the money’. Dr. MacFadden had an NSF grant to study evolution of ‘Megalodon’ and the megatoothed sharks and needed a PhD student. I was available, and he and I worked well together. My background in Marine Biology and my early interest in fossil sharks made me a natural fit!

Studying a female Great White Shark, Carcharodon carcharias, at the Kwazulu Natal Sharks Board, South Africa

Question 9: Is there a subject you’d like to work on that you have not yet?

DE: I like to joke that I want to cover as many taxonomic groups as possible in my career. But I definitely recognize that I specialize in certain groups of organisms and cannot be an expert in all groups. Thus far I’ve been an author or co-author on papers and research including fossil sharks, turtles, pterosaurs, lungfishes, toothed birds, mosasaurs and even rudistid clams. I’d like to dip my toe into Appalachian dinos at some point though.

Dana posing with Ornithomimus at the New Jersey State Museum in Trenton, New Jersey.

Question 10: Do you ever get criticized on any of your work?  How do you handle it?

DE: Of course! That is how science works! One proposes a hypothesis and puts it forward for others to test. I would say the most controversial idea I have proposed in a paper was reassigning ‘Isurus’ or ‘Cosmopolitodus’ hastalis, the broad toothed ‘mako’, to the genus ‘Carcharodon’. Like most people, it can be tough to be criticized, but scientists are mostly respectable and that is how it works. Peer-review to be heart-wrenching when you get a bad review. But at the end of the day, I remember that science is always about questioning and testing the ideas proposed by others. When I review manuscripts I keep in mind that harsh comments can really hurt and I always approach my reviews with sensitivity.

  

Question 11: A common idea is that paleontology is just a “for fun” science, with no real impact or noticeable affect that helps the world.  Do you think paleontology has a bigger part to play to than this?  How?

DE: Of course it does! As a grad student (along with my fellow lab members) we used to practice talking to the public about our research and why it is important. I always include the importance of our work in my talks as well. Why is studying giant, extinct sharks important? Well….. by studying fossil sharks and how they respond to changes in climate, food resources, ecology, etc we can better understand and model what will happen to living species in the future. We are in an unprecedented time of drastic climate change. By learning more about how organisms responded to drastic, sudden changes in their environments through time, we can model how animals may or may not react going forward.

Question 12: Who was the first paleontologist you met?  How was that interaction?

DE: I was REALLY lucky!! As a freshman in college I had Dr. Roger Wood as a professor and advisor. By the time I was a junior in college I knew Dr. Margaret Lewis and Dr. Albert Wood. During my senior year of undergrad I had met Drs. Ted Daeschler (Academy of Natural Sciences) and Gene Gaffney (American Museum of Natural History). With regards to Roger Wood, I think we hit it off right away. He was approachable and easy to talk to. As I mentioned previously, Roger really propelled me on my career path!

Question 13: What is your favorite prehistoric animal?  Was it different when you were younger?

DE: Stegosaurus is my all-time favorite prehistoric animal and it hasn’t changed since I was little. I REALLY wanted to work on stegosaurs in grad school. When I got to the Univ. of Florida and first met with Dr. Bruce MacFadden he asked me, ‘What do you want to work on” and I replied, ‘Dinosaurs’. After he stopped laughing he said, NO! Florida has no dinosaurs. In hindsight, I am very happy with my career path.

Stegosaurus in watercolors by Christopher DiPiazza

Question 14: If you could use a time machine to go back and pick only one prehistoric animal to bring back from history and observe alive and in person, which would it be and why?

DE: That’s easy, and it isn’t prehistoric. The Thylacine! Research and news these days are focused on bringing back mammoths or creating dinosaur chickens via reverse genetic engineering. But if we can’t protect and keep the living species of elephants safe, why bring back ones that went extinct thousands of years ago?  The Thylacine went extinct in the 1930s and it was likely due to humans. Think about it, a marsupial wolf!! A large carnivore with a pouch!! There are many taxidermied specimens and skins in collections around the world, this is doable!

Question 15: Back to the time machine.  This time you can go back to any place and time period and have a look at what the environment was really like.  Which one would you pick and why?

DE: I’m sure a lot of my colleagues would say the Cambrian Explosion, to see all of the wild innovations that organisms were trying out. But not me, the Miocene of Peru and Chile, what we know as the Pisco Formation today would be my choice. What a time! Giant sperm whales (Livyatan melvillei), sharks (Carcharodon hubbelli), whales with walrus-like tusks (Odobenocetops), sloths that swam in the ocean and ate sea grasses (Thalassocnus)…. WOW! The environment was teeming with amazing creatures (I just named a few) and highly productive.

Question 16: Which is your favorite museum?  Why?

DE: Collections-wise I’m biased, the Florida Museum is amazing! As a biologist and paleontologist the Herpetology, Ichthyology and Paleontology collections combined are unparalleled. This museum is a national treasure, both in terms of collections and staff. Exhibit-wise, the American Museum is my favorite. The cladistic approach to fossil life along with the most amazing specimens is my go to museum. I’ve taken my nephews multiple times and subjected them to my own personal tours!

Question 17: What hobbies do you have?  (Don’t have to be paleo-related.)

DE: Where to begin? I am a COLLECTOR! I started working on cars when I was 13 years old. I have a 1970 Dodge Dart, which I’ve owned for 20 years. But I also helped restore a 1963 Pontiac LeMans convertible with my dad before that. I’m also a motorcycle enthusiast and own two bikes. Another hobby is music. I LOVE going to shows! I play some banjo (clawhammer-style), and have some beautiful instruments. I am also a HUGE vinyl collector. I have close to 2000 LPs, 1000+ 45s and am now getting into 78s. When I’m not collecting fossils you’ll see me at flea markets and yard sales throughout New Jersey!

Dr. Ehret entertaining the idea of growing antlers like the famous "Elk-Moose" on display at the New Jersey State Museum.

Thank you Dr. Ehret!  If you are ever in New Jersey, make a trip to Trenton and you might see Dr. Ehret in the fossil labs.  Farewell until next time!