Interview with Paleontologist: Natalia Jagielska

Natalia Jagielska is in her 3rd year of PhD study at University of Edinburgh. Specialising in Jurassic Pterosaurs. Prior to doctorate she worked on synchrotron scanning of avian fossils at University of Manchester. 

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

NJ: Watching Jurassic Park 3, I'd take a guess, I really liked the raptors. 

Question 2: Did you have anyone who served as a role model when you were younger? Do you still have any now?

NJ: Not really. I really looked up to Nikola Tesla, a working class East European with thick accent and eccentricities, making his way in the West. While loving pigeons.

Question 3: You primarily work with pterosaurs. Did you choose them or did they choose you. (in a sense) 

NJ: It was purely accidental. There was a PhD opening on research on Skye material, I worked on Skye Jurassic deposits in my undergraduate. Unlikely match. 

Question 4: 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? What sort of field experience, a class, networking with the right people, or possibly something different?

NJ: I did a lot of free volunteering and part time work in various sectors. I did teaching, museum outreach, museum curation, industrial petroleum research, NGO, anything that came my way. I regret it in hindsight, as I missed much on developing my private life & ruining work life balance. But boosted my CV allowing to be rather competitive even without research, palaeontology, field work portfolio. 

Question 5: What would your advice be to anyone trying to make a career in paleontology (or science in general)

NJ: Know what you're getting into. And be aware it's a competitive field, with more graduates than job positions. Keep your options open and don't fall into tunnel vision. 

Question 6: What was or is your favorite project so far?

NJ: Mapping of Lower Jurassic Skye I had to do for my undergraduate thesis. 

Question 7: Do you have a favorite destination when it comes to fossils? Why?

NJ: Regis, I just like working with strata that is fissile. And Dorset is nice. 

Natalia with the fossil of the pterosaur, Dearc, which was described by Natalia in Februrary of 2022.

Question 8: A popular image of paleontologists is that they are constantly out in the field digging up fossils, which is true sometimes What people don’t realize is that a lot of paleontology work is conducted in a lab as well. In your experience how much time have you spend in the lab and in the field? What do you prefer?

NJ:. It's 90% office desk or work at home on computer. Especially during the pandemic. 

Question 9: Are there any fossils you’d like to work with that you haven’t yet?

NJ: Elements from the from Karabastau Formation, which might be really unlikely given sociopolitical situation of things 

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

NJ: It's part of research. Depends on delivery of criticism. If it's constructive peer review, I take on board and value it greatly. If it's someone with too much free time and twitter, I doubt it's in goodwill. 

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

NJ: It's accessible. Visual. And resonates with general public more than any other research field. It's an excellent vehicle for science communication & magnet to get people into educational spaces, like museums. Especially kids. 

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

NJ: On my first lecture on palaeontology at University, Professor John Nudds. I asked about place for work experience in the field in Manchester. Palaeontologists are just people, it's weird holding them up on some pedestal. 

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

NJ: Any Dromaeosaurid, then and now, they're like felines of the Mesozoic world and I love felines. 

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?

NJ: Vast majority of fauna isn't preserved well in fossil record. I'd get something that clearly does not have good potential of preserving & we have no record of it.

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?

NJ: Georgian & Victorian England. I just want to know what kind of person Darwin & Owen really were. And see Crystal Palace before it burned down. 

Question 16: Which is your favorite museum? Why?

NJ: I'm going to be extremely sad, and say Natural History Museum London. It's neogothic cathedral for natural world. You cannot get better than this. It's big, and free. 

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

NJ: I love city walking & architecture, it's like geology of the human age. I also love to build plane models in my spare time. And KTV (Chinese Karaoke), extreme cheese fest, but I love screaming over ABBA. 

---