Thomas Clements

So my name is Dr. Thomas Clements, and I am a palaeontologist and lecturer based at the University of Reading in the United Kingdom.

And I specialise in a special type of palaeontology called taphonomy, which is the study of how animals become fossils.

So some people often refer to me as the Doctor of Decay.

So my job is split into three main sections.

So the first section is I do a lot of teaching, and that includes teaching undergraduates and masters level students at university. So things like lectures and also lab-based practicals and sometimes going out into the field.

The second part of my job is research, which is the sort of the main part of my job. So that can be either looking at fossils, visiting field sites to collect fossils or visiting museums, or it could be working in the lab doing experiments to try to understand how animals become fossils.

And then the third part of my job is what I call community building, and that's things like science communication, so like talking to you guys today, or working as a curator in the museum here at the University of Reading.

So those three things are what I do the most of. And it's what makes my job very, I think, amazing because it's very varied. So every day is very different.

So for me, a typical day is normally in my office, which you can see behind me. I spend a lot of time on emails, like a lot of people do, with administration, or it could be preparing a lecture or maybe a practical for the upcoming week or for the students.

It could also be meeting with other researchers online and chatting with them or maybe attending courses.

Or my day could be spent in the lab where I do experiments decaying animals like fish, crabs and worms to try to understand how fossils form, understand the chemistry of decay.

Or sometimes I'm, if I'm very lucky, I'll be out in the field. So last week, for instance, I was in Lyme Regis looking at the rocks and looking for fossils and taking some of our students down there so they could learn field skills to become a palaeontologist.

Or I could be somewhere like in China or the United States looking for fossils and visiting museums to look at the fossils that they have there.

Science is inherently very collaborative. We work together in groups. Most of my work is done with large teams of people from all over the world.

So I have collaborators in places like Ireland, Germany, Poland, France, USA, China, places like that.

And some of those are specialists who work in museums. Some of them are other academics who work at universities. And some of them are amateur collectors who collect fossils in the field and often will message me to sort of say that they found something exciting that they want me to look at.

Here at Reading, I work with a team of researchers and other academics, but I also work with museum curators and lab technicians who support my research on a day-to-day basis. So running of equipment, the running of the labs.

And without them, it would be impossible to do my job. So it's really important, I think, that we talk about those people who work behind the scenes.

And some of those researchers are specialists in things that I'm not specialist in. So some of them might be statisticians who help me with like maths and statistics. Other ones might be ecologists. So modern biologists who work on things like, I don't know, elephants in Africa or maybe on insects, who I use their knowledge to try to understand ancient life.

So my work is inherently very collaborative and we work with big teams. And realistically, I need lots of help from people who run equipment and know things that I don't know to help me do my research.

One thing I'm very, or excites me that I get up in the morning for is science communication with the public.

So, you know, working at fossil festivals or in the museum here, getting to meet the public and talking to them about fossils and sort of getting them enthused in natural history, that for me is a big selling point of my job.

But I think the truth underneath everything, I think the one thing that really excites me is the fact that I get to look at fossils that are hundreds of millions of years old and still are full of secrets and try to understand them, how they form, and then talk about that science to people like you.

And realistically, I have a deep passion for spending my time with things that are very, very dead.

I think one of the hardest things about my job in particular is that to do science research, you have to apply for grants. So you have to apply either to charities or to the government for money in order to do the experiments that I do in the lab.

And you get a lot of rejections. That's very normal as a scientist, but can be very difficult to come to terms with, especially when you put a lot of work into those grants. Sometimes the uncertainty of not knowing whether or not you'll be able to get that money and do that work is quite difficult and quite challenging.

And it's learning to come to terms with that rejection, knowing that it doesn't mean that your science is bad or what you're doing is bad. It just means that you know, maybe the governments have a different priority that year or that you know, you're competing against hundreds of other people.

So it's just a sort of understanding that it is a bit of a numbers game sometimes.

My journey started really with my undergraduate degree. So that's going to university. So I studied geology. And then after that, I did a master's degree in palaeobiology. And then I went on to do a PhD at the University of Leicester, where I specialised in palaeontology and in this field of taphonomy, so how animals become fossils.

But I think the important thing that I would like to point out at this point is that palaeontology is a really amazing science because we study such a huge range of questions.

So we study not only just ancient animals. So if you're interested in, I don't know, cockroaches, you can work on fossil cockroaches. If you're interested in fossil stick insects, you can work on that. If you're interested in dinosaurs, you can work on that. If you're interested in saber-toothed tigers and saber-toothed cats, you can work on those.

So there are lots of different routes in. You can be a biologist, geologist, a statistician, a mathematician, a chemist. If you are working within STEM, so science, technology, engineering, mathematics, normally there's a route in to palaeontology.

You just have to be fascinated by fossils and evolution and ancient life. And no matter what discipline you work in, there's a route in to palaeontology.

And I think that's what makes palaeontology such an exciting science, it's interdisciplinary. And that's, think, I would like to just point out to the listeners is that there is no set route into becoming a palaeontologist.

You know, looking back now, school really helped me with, you know, understanding science. So things like chemistry, maths, biology, those skills developed the tool kits that I use today on a regular basis.

And one of the things though that I would say that's really important was learning how to ask questions, asking good questions, understanding experiments, understanding how to think about the world that we live in and also the ancient world and to always be asking why.

Why is it like that? Why do we do it like this? Why does this thing work and this not work?

And using that sort of ability to question is what really makes you an excellent scientist, really.

And then I think other things at school, you know, I was, I loved things like drama and things like that. And I think that's really helped me in my career because I like speaking to people. I like communicating. And I think as a scientist, it's really important that we communicate our science.

So yeah, I think that school has helped me with lots of those different things. And I can't really put my finger on one particular thing. I think that just all of these different things together sort of mould you into the person that you are.

But so long as you're naturally curious, then I think you'll be an excellent scientist.

About two weeks ago, I published some research on a fossil octopus that has been known about for a very long time, and it went viral.

It was everywhere. It was on the news. I was interviewed by the BBC. I got interviewed by CNN and TV stations in Canada. I was on the phone for the whole day talking to radio stations.

So that's a massive highlight of my job, because I think the public and people are naturally very interested in fossils. I think they're quite charismatic things.

And for me, as a palaeontologist, a lot of people think that we work just on dinosaurs, but I work on soft, squishy invertebrates.

So if they get into the news, for me, that's very exciting. It makes me very happy.

In terms of my field, palaeontology, I think the first thing I would tell myself is that there is no route, like set prescribed route. You can do any sort of STEM-based undergraduate degree and you can go into palaeontology.

I think that's really important for people to realise because often when students or when people at school approach me and ask me how do you become a palaeontologist, they often think they have to study geology.

And I like to tell them that some of the best palaeontologists I know are not geologists at all. They are biologists or chemists or statisticians, mathematicians. So you can do whatever you want to do in STEM and move in that way. Even not even in STEM, you can work in humanities.

And then I suppose the last thing, other than being curious and asking questions all the time, is say yes to things. Volunteer, try to get involved with your local museums, or try and volunteer to help out at fossil festivals and things like that. And just have a go and reach out to people. Never be shy to ask for advice or guidance from academics.

Most of us are very happy to chat and to help you in your career path. And especially when you get to university, reach out to people within your department, but also generally. And yeah, hopefully you'll be able to find your niche within palaeontology.