Great book! I enjoyed the depth it provided to a new topic not many people might have picked up otherwise. The cover was what drew me in but the writing got me to stick to it through and through, which surprised me greatly. Great work!

As lot of other people I came for the dinosaurs and discovered what being a palaeontologist means.
It's a good book that explains what they do and how to become one.
It's always interesting to learn more about one of your dream profession.
It's a bit dry at time but it was an interesting read.
Recommended.
Many thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for this ARC, all opinions are mine

thank you Netgalley and Columbia University Press for access to this arc.

This is an excellent book for those who might be interested in pursuing paleontology for a career. And don’t think that because you haven’t longed to be a paleontologist since you were six or have grown up collecting fossils that this won’t mean you. Dr. Plotnick includes little bios on many of his colleagues and it’s amazing how many of them initially had plans for other careers – and not necessarily in science fields.

There’s lots of information about aspects of paleontology that might be a surprise including how many discoveries come from studying fossils already in collections around the world vs recently discovered ones from the field, how paleontologists are more likely to be using sophisticated lab equipment rather than chisels and hammers (though a good, well balanced hammer is essential in one’s field kit), how much the discoveries of amateur/avocational paleontologists have added to knowledge in the field, how artists are helping change the public perception of what extinct animals looked like, and that the dream of discovering dino DNA is just that though mammoth DNA has been reconstructed. They also get to ask all kinds of cool questions about past life on Earth.

I will fess up and admit that some chapters didn’t hold my attention as I don’t plan on returning to college so have little interest in choosing a program or mentor in the field nor do I plan on reviewing scientific papers. It was heartening to read about how paleontology is reaching out to increase minority interest in the subject and encourage more historically disadvantaged students to consider a career in it. More care is being taken with specimen collecting and more specimens are being returned to countries from which they were illegally removed. But while decreasing funding and changing university priorities is making traditional tenured teaching careers more precarious, many other employment paths are opening up.

Dr. Plotnick is an entertaining writer and while not obviously dumbing down the material makes the subject interesting and accessible for the casual reader. But the book is more the field of paleontology rather than any specific discoveries – though those are, of course, mentioned. Still the ways and means by which paleontologists and the many and varied other scientists with whom they work are discovering new and amazing things about life thousands to millions to billions of years ago is fascinating in and of itself. But wait, there’s more. Some people in the field are contributing information, based on what already has happened during major extinctions and past climate events, about what the Earth might face in the coming centuries. B

5/10 stars

My full review on my blog (link attached).

I’ll be very frank: Roy Plotnick’s book is a strange beast indeed; I have expected something along the lines of Dean R. Lomax’s Locked In Time, a pure palaeontology delight filled with descriptions of unique discoveries and fact-based interpretation of the traces of life long gone. What I got instead was an unusual mixture of a tiny bit of paleontological knowledge, a huge load of pages seemingly lifted from Who’s Who in US palaeontology, overflowing with personal information about various US palaeontologists in the last 50 years, complete with short biography boxes completely disrupting the flow of the book, and a fair amount of what looks like a memoir of Plotnick himself, with personal photographs. In short, if you want to become a palaeontologist in the modern United States, this book is for you. It’s filled with useful information about positions, institutions, big and small names in the field, the development of various palaeontology areas and subdivisions, and so on. But if you want to know a bit more about the contents of palaeontology itself – look somewhere else. I strongly suggest Lomax’s book, because it’s as illuminating as it is engaging.

As for Plotnick, I must confess I had somewhat of a hard time going through pages and pages of alternately gossipy and nostalgic snippets of information about people I never met nor expect to ever meet. The moments of the book when Plotnick finally gets to the bones of palaeontology were the most interesting and enjoyable – it’s obvious that he has an enormous knowledge in the field, and a gift for explaining it succinctly and clearly. I was many times surprised and delighted to see how the scope of paleontological knowledge is changing and evolving, how various fields of biological and geological sciences combine to illuminate the times long gone, and how such an old, not to say prehistoric, area of interest can give us insights into our future. Plotnick is an advocate of an interdisciplinary approach to palaeontology, and his book makes for a compelling argument in its favour. The description of the various ways we can apply knowledge about past climates to our current situation and search for solutions to the global warming problems in the past is very interesting. And Plotnick is a scientist through and through – the bibliography annex is very useful and for those interested in palaeontology it offers a wealth of information and options for future reading – I’ll be coming back to it as my reference list. Fascinating! I really wish Plotnick devoted the whole book to the topic of palaeontology instead of going down the rabbit hole of personal information on palaeontologists.

[...]

I believe that American current and future palaeontologists will be delighted to read this book. For them, it’s a veritable well of useful information and gossip. For a person who wanted to learn more about palaeontology itself, however, it was a disappointment. I really wish I could’ve liked it more, Plotnick seems like a nice and very knowledgeable person.

I have received a copy of this book from the publisher through NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. My special thanks to Robyn Massey at Columbia University for providing the book for review.

Explorers of Deep Time is an accessible, scientifically accurate, and well written look at paleontology and the scientists who study it written by Dr. Roy Plotnick. Released 4th Jan 2022 by The Columbia University Press, it's 344 pages and is available in hardcover and ebook formats.

The author writes engagingly and well about "Deep Time" and the conditions and physical, geological, and biological features which shaped those eras and have had such a profound effect on our world. The illustrations and photographs (and digital recreations) add a lot and helped me to visualize scale (giant dragonflies circa 310 million years ago were *really* huge).

Besides talking about ancient history, the author spends a gratifying amount of time talking about academia and the sometimes (often?) circuitous path to becoming a paleontologist or other theoretical scientist and academic. I am a bionerd and am on numerous groups on social media and one of the perennial questions is "My kid is interested in _____, so what education should they be pursuing"? It's nice to see actual real life advice on real life studies by an eminent (real life) scientist.

The book is layman accessible, and I found it a fascinating read. It's well annotated (and the chapter notes and index make for fascinating further reading) but doesn't get bogged down in overly academic language. This is popular science writing - not a "how-to" guide for collection or specimen study. It's clear he's both knowledgeable and engaged in the subjects as well as having a solid interest in passing on knowledge and encouraging others to learn and study. There are a handful of popular science writers who have the gift of writing layman accessibly and engagingly on their topics of expertise. We can safely add Dr. Plotnick to the list. The chapter notes and bibliography are for papers and research presented in English (most science writing is in English these days).

Five stars. Heartily recommended for readers of science, paleontology, academic pursuits, and STEM subjects, as well as for public and school library acquisition.

Disclosure: I received an ARC at no cost from the author/publisher for review purposes.

"To truly understand biology is to recognize the role of history, which is recorded by paleontology."

Why did I read it
Curious about paleontology.

Notes
- Paleontology = geology + biology. It adopts many cutting-edge methods for research, and therefore, is not outdated and archaic.
- Paleontologists are interested in comparing the modern biodiversity decline to the catastrophic collapse of the geologic past (the five extinctions) to better understand the Sixth Extinction.
- The vast majority of fossils are not rare, although some are. Animal behavior can also be captured in the form of 'trace fossils' (tracks, trails, drill holes, bites, etc.).
- DNA degrades too quickly to be preserved intact, so let's wait until we have more advanced technologies to make our Jurassic Park dream come true.
- Many fascinating stories on landowners who restrict their areas for field research, fossil auctions, and smugglers.

Thoughts
- Now I'm deeply troubled on why paleontologists don't appear to be heavily engaged in climate change books.
- A very detailed and comprehensive book on paleontology; you will know every single thing about the people, the journals, the conferences, etc. If you are an aspiring paleontologist, this book is a must-read! If you're expecting a simple introduction, this book might be too detailed.
- The content is very US-oriented, therefore, the author expresses a deep interest in global paleontology and how virtual meetings helped him to know more about this field in other countries.
- I love Plotnick's honesty, sense of humor, and passion as he went all-out in describing the daily life of a paleontologist. They are literally reading the history of the earth from the earth itself (which is super cool), but they also have issues in research grants and publication. Very entertaining!
- The non-academic issues are also written in detail (e.g., gender and racial issue; the stereotype of 'white-man-with-beard paleontologist').

Could be subtitled “So you think you want to be a paleontologist?” Or…”Ontology of Paleontology”. Plotnik is a good writer! With a science background, I found him easy to follow. It seemed like he’d be fun to sit next to at a dinner party….or long train ride. Personable, forthcoming, thoughtful and inclusive, he leads us through past, present and future (needs, trends, disadvantages and advantages) of the wide (I now know) field of paleontology. We aren’t just dinosaurs. The book is more about how a variety of people went into the field, what they do now, what the needs are and what a person could do in this field. He introduces the reader to the cool questions paleontologist and their friends attempt to answer, but doesn’t go into detail about those answers. He gives plenty of references to books that do this. This is really for a reader who is or might be interested in paleontology or related fields. Would be good for high schoolers and up, including second career adults. I especially appreciate his honest portrayals of the deficiencies in the field and his individual short bios of a variety of paleontologists -male and female. Five stars for thoroughly accomplishing his goals. Five stars for writing. If you aren’t interested in what its like to be a paleontologist, this book probably isn’t for you.

As the author says, my idea of paleontologists came from Jurassic Park, so this volume was informative in that I now have a better understanding of how they work. Turns out that only a small percentage of them deal with dinosaurs, but that doesn’t make them any less interesting. I had no idea that they specialized in so many different areas. That said, I found the rest of the book very dry. There are too many details and names. For a budding paleontologist it may be fascinating but for a layperson it was… well, boring. I also wasn’t too crazy about the long paragraphs with woke political content. The introduction seemed promising, but the rest was disappointing.
I chose to read this book and all opinions in this review are my own and completely unbiased. Thank you, NetGalley/#Columbia University Press!

Roy Plotnick is a Professor Emeritus at University of Chicago Illinois with decades of experience in paleontology. In his book, Explorers of Deep Time, he discusses the history and importance of paleontology and how the field has changed radically in the last few decades, becoming more diverse and technology-driven. He also makes a very compelling argument for the fundamental importance of paleontology as an interdisciplinary science essential for understanding climate change and other environmental problems we face now and in the future.

This is a fascinating book for anyone interested in the life of paleontologists. One thing that quickly becomes clear is how varied and undefined the path is. Plotnick gives brief biographies about several dozen paleontologists working today, showing that their career progression is seldom linear. Too many people (myself included) have an idea that scientists are always sure of themselves and move steadily along on a predetermined path. It’s refreshing to see the truth.

I do wish there were more pictures or photographs in this book. I ended up googling several times a chapter, which interrupted my reading process, because I wanted to see what the fossils described looked like! I understand that there are complicated logistical issues involving replicating images in books, but I hope the final print book will include additional images.

Plotnick shows that paleontology is relevant, nay, vital, and that it's an overlooked interdisciplinary field that defies and challenges trends in the last few decades towards increased isolation and specialization in the sciences. I was really struck by his suggestion that one way to overcome this might be to start teaching children more holistically in the sciences at a young age. He uses the example of using dinosaurs as an introduction to teaching children about how the dinosaurs lived in their environment, how they moved, what the chemical composition of their bones is, etc. By teaching people from a young age to regard the sciences as dynamic and interconnected, not just as isolated subfields, we can improve scientific education in the general public, and give children a greater awareness of what STEM careers really entail.


Overall, this book rekindled my old love (shared by many children) for dinosaurs in particular and paleontology in general. It also pointed me in new directions of discovery. I had no idea that microbial paleontology was so advanced, or that we can learn so much about past climates from fossils. I share Plotnick’s cautious optimism that we can learn enough from the past to help protect ourselves from some of the future threats of climate change.

I received a free ARC copy of this book from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

This book gave me permission to release my inner childhood nerd. Palaeontologists must be up there with astronauts, police officers, pilots, musicians etc, as dream childhood jobs,

Whilst I did find it interesting - I am fascinated how we can formulate complete figures from millions of years ago just by ‘rocks’ - I was expecting a bit more about palaeontology and dinosaurs and fossils themselves, rather than leaning heavily on how to become a palaeontologist. Which for someone with no history or science qualifications is locking very unlikely.

It’s very simple to understand and friendly, and you can really feel the passion Roy has for the industry,

Thanks to my nephew’s obsession with them, I thought I knew a lot about dinosaurs, but I found myself learning more and more fascinating things with this book.

Along with police officer, fire fighter and garbage collector, paleontologist is very likely to be on most children’s “ most desirable” careers list. But as adults, we may be less aware of exact,y who paleontologists are and why their work is crucial to understanding our environment, its past and where we may be headed in the future of life on earth. Plotnick, an emeritus professor of paleontology, explains the “who, what and why” of paleontology through stories of the work and discoveries of current researchers. The prose is clear and friendly. If you are ready to go beyond a grade school understanding of the field and would like to know about the challenges and importance of the field, this is a great introduction. Understanding how science works is crucial to critical thinking about our future as a species and this book makes the learning a fun adventure.

I really enjoyed this detailed look into the lives of paleontologists. From field work to grant writing, the author conveyed all the things that go into working in this field. I feel the author did an excellent job of balancing his experience as an older paleontologist with how things work today, especially his balanced critique of some of the shortcomings of the field in regards to women, minorities and disabled persons who have traditionally been marginalized in STEM. I also really enjoyed how he worked to subvert the trope that paleontologists are just "stamp-collectors" and do not have any relevance in today's scientific world. The cutting edge technology in use now is fascinating.

I loved the diversity of paleontologists introduced in this book to help dispel the “old man white beard” image.

I would definitely recommend to students who are interested in paleontology/evolution etc to see what the job entails in the real world and not the fictional world.

Would be a great addition to our careers programme.

Plotnick gives a thorough rundown of how it is working as a palaeontologist from university and onwards. As a child I, as many children, was quite into dinosaurs and often pestered my parents to take me to the Natural History museum which had (and have!) a great palaeontology exhibition. I would be one of the children Plotnick describes asking him if he's found many dinosaurs and then going away crestfallen when a negative answer was given. It's nice to broaden one's horizons a bit as palaeontology is much more than just dinosaurs.

I'm not quite sure what I imagined from this book but it was interesting all the same, but I did find myself skipping some bits. I think I might have wanted more of the science/field work rather than how to become a palaeontologist.

If your teenage son or daughter is thinking about becoming a paleontologist they must read this book.. For these kids, the book gets five stars but for everyone else, it is only worth one star.

Let’s face it, we all think of the fictional Dr. Alan Grant of Jurassic Park or the real life Dr. Jack Horner when we think of paleontologists. Rugged, outdoorsy types who always find their dinosaur. Plotnick takes readers into the lives of real paleontologists, some who do field work, looking for fossils, others doing research in labs and others using software to help decode the earth’s past. Learning about earth’s past, it seems, will enable us to understand its future. A fascinating look at the job I always wanted to do (besides being a librarian)