Erin E. Saupe
Dr Erin E. Saupe - Ask a Palaeontologist
This month we chat to Dr Erin E. Saupe, Associate Professor of Palaeobiology at the Department of Earth Sciences, University of Oxford
- Name: Dr Erin E. Saupe
- Job: Associate Professor of Palaeobiology
- Location: Department of Earth Sciences, University of Oxford
What inspired you to become a scientist?
My love for the natural world was fostered by my parents from an early age. However, I didn’t want to be a scientist until my first semester of university. Mostly by chance, I took an introductory geology course by an amazing professor, Larry Davis. He inspired incredible awe about the natural world, and he explained why the Earth is like it is---why it has mountains in certain places, why some rivers are fast whereas others are slow, why some beaches have dark sand and others light, etc. I was hooked on Earth science from that point onwards.
What inspired you to become a palaeontologist?
Within the Earth Sciences, I became interested in paleontology because the discipline combines my love for history with my love for animals. I saw paleontologists as detectives that piece together why and how evolution occurs. I always loved fossils and continue to be fascinated with ancient forms of life that lived millions of years ago.
Describe your work/job.
I am a professor at the University of Oxford in the Department of Earth Sciences, and a Tutorial Fellow at St. Hugh’s College. My job involves teaching undergraduate students, mentoring graduate students, writing grants, researching the past, and doing (copious amounts) of administration. My research is focused on macroecology and macroevolution. I am interested in disentangling how species respond to past climatic changes and determining what governs rates of speciation and extinction.
What’s the best part of your job?
I enjoy many aspects of my job. However, I think one of my favorite parts is working with students to develop their research ideas in paleontology. I get a thrill out of the initial exploration of an idea or dataset, knowing that no one else has explored this particular aspect of Earth history before.
What other jobs have you done?
When I was growing up, I worked all sorts of summer jobs, such as bagging groceries, cashiering, cleaning hospital rooms, and making fast food. However, since entering graduate school, I have worked only in the field of paleontology. Prior to joining the University of Oxford as a faculty member, I was a postdoctoral fellow at the Yale Institute for Biospheric Studies.
What were your favourite subjects at school?
I went to school in the USA, so I took everything from chemistry to English to math to history up until I graduated. I loved all of these subjects, but, as I alluded to previously, I was especially in love with history.
Where did you study geoscience/palaeontology?
I did my undergraduate degree in the natural sciences at a small liberal arts college in Minnesota, USA, called the College of St. Benedict. After my undergraduate degree, I jumped immediately into my MSc and PhD at the University of Kansas, USA. My graduate work was cross-disciplinary in the sense that I was based in a geology department, but I worked closely - and frequently - with biologists and ecologists.
What hobbies do you have outside of palaeontology?
I enjoy baking (especially cupcakes!), walking in nature, travelling the world, reading novels, and spending time with my cat and my friends.
What is your favourite fossil?
Good question! There are too many cool fossils from which to choose. That said, I do love heteromorph ammonites. Heteromorph ammonites were cephalopods with very funky shell shapes that were especially diverse in the Cretaceous (~145-66 Ma). Some of these ammonites could get up to 1.5 meters long coiled!
What’s your favourite place that you have travelled to study palaeontology?
I have been lucky to travel to many places to attend conferences, collaborate with colleagues, and perform fieldwork. I adore exploring the world, and I enjoy how each place has its own culture, geology, flora, and fauna. My favorite field spot may be in central Spain digging up Cretaceous amber from the time of the dinosaurs. My favorite conference spot may be Mendoza, Argentina, partly because I got to drink lots of Malbec wine.
Why is it important for us to study palaeontology?
The fossil record, and therefore paleontology, provides our only direct insight into the rich array of life that has existed on Earth. Paleontology is important in elucidating the trajectory of evolution and can tells us about evolutionary mechanisms. Fossil data can also inform on generalized rules for how species and ecosystems change through time, and on the factors that make species more prone to extinction.
Speaking of extinction, some of my research relates to the newly-emerging subfield of paleobiology called ‘conservation paleobiology’. Conservation paleobiology uses geohistorical information to help conserve present-day species, and is therefore relevant to our current biodiversity crisis.
In short, paleontology has a lot to offer. Earth and life systems have interacted reciprocally over millions of years. Thus, to better understand geological changes and associated processes, we must look to the fossil record and to paleontology. The same can also be said for the study of modern-day species and ecosystems: to better understand biological patterns and processes today, we need to integrate across timescales. That is, we need to look to the deep past to explain biodiversity today.
What advice would you give to somebody interested in becoming a palaeontologist?
Paleobiologists work at the intersection of biology and geology, so take as many courses in these two disciplines as possible. The field is becoming increasingly quantitative, and future success in the field will be predicated, in part, on mathematical skills. So, take as many modeling, programming, statistics, and calculus courses as you can stand, with statistics being especially important!
Erin online
- Follow Erin on Twitter - @ErinSaupe
- Check out Erin's website - https://www.earth.ox.ac.uk/people/erin-saupe/