AROUND TOWN
discovering fossils
Laying the foundations for a career
Emily Swaby
Since the dawn of Darwin’s time, humans have been on a quest of discovery to dig beneath the surface and uncover the ancestors of our natural history.
Eleganticeras elegantum ammonite
I love how if you find a fossil hidden within a nodule, when you hit it open you’re the first person to ever see it.”
heads into her third and final year with two awards under her belt: The Paleontological Association Prize for best level 5 student, and the American Association of Stratigraphic Palynologists award for the highest mark in Micropalaeontology and Palaeobotany units.
While 20-year-old Emily currently spends most of her days studying the remains of prehistoric animals and plants under a microscope, piecing together their stories, just where did the idea to be a palaeontologist begin?
Thanks to a Spielberg science-fiction classic, landslides of people have struck up an interest or knowledge in at least one geologic period – the Jurassic. But aside from the adventures of two palaeontologists in a
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But for palaeontology student Emily Swaby, she’s hoping to unearth new finds and inspire a generation one fossil at a time.
Emily, from Wath, is currently one of only six females on her BSc Palaeontology degree at University of Portsmouth – one of the few dedicated palaeontology courses in the UK.
After finishing her second year with the highest overall grade on the course, Emily
dinosaur theme park, the catalyst of Emily’s curiosity began when her grandparents bought her a set of rocks and minerals when she was ten.
Having always had an interest in history, these colourful crystals enticed her imagination of a whole new world. After her grandad passed away in 2010, the family went to Scarborough where Emily found her first fossil.
“The beach in Scarborough isn’t really good for fossils but I found this really insignificant shell. I thought it was the best thing in the world and I still have it today,” she says.
While at Scarborough, Emily met a man called Richard Widdowson who ran a coastal fossil shop called Gems; she brought a box of fossils with her and Richard spent the time identifying and labelling them, helping her understand where they might have come from.
“He’s sadly passed away since but he really inspired me to think I would love a job like his, encouraging children to become interested in fossils. If I ever find anything new to science, I’d name it after him.”
With her eyes firmly on the ground, Emily becomes detective, investigating the path of life forms from a distant past through a few rocky clues to understand how life began and has evolved over the years.
“I love how if you find a fossil hidden within a nodule, when you hit it open you’re the first person to ever see it.”
Growing up with a love of the geological world, Emily undertook her school work experience placement at Doncaster Museum and Art Gallery where she worked alongside renowned palaeontologist, Dean Lomax – the world’s leading expert on marine reptiles, specifically Ichthyosaurs.
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