avg_rating: 3.75
name: Ken McNamara
about: Ken McNamara is like a child who never grew up. Like many children, he had an early fascination with fossils (though not dinosaurs, particularly). He grew up in Brighton, England, which lies on chalk hills called the South Downs. When he was eight or nine years old, he discovered that the hills contained fossils—shells, sea urchins, ammonites, shark teeth—and he was hooked! Most people grow out of their childhood hobbies … and he tried, honestly.After earning a degree in geology and mineralogy at Aberdeen University, he went on to complete a Ph.D. at Cambridge University in England. When he finished his studies at Cambridge, he decided it was time for a change and immigrated to Australia.Ken has been collecting fossils for so long that he a Ken McNamara is like a child who never grew up. Like many children, he had an early fascination with fossils (though not dinosaurs, particularly). He grew up in Brighton, England, which lies on chalk hills called the South Downs. When he was eight or nine years old, he discovered that the hills contained fossils—shells, sea urchins, ammonites, shark teeth—and he was hooked! Most people grow out of their childhood hobbies … and he tried, honestly.After earning a degree in geology and mineralogy at Aberdeen University, he went on to complete a Ph.D. at Cambridge University in England. When he finished his studies at Cambridge, he decided it was time for a change and immigrated to Australia.Ken has been collecting fossils for so long that he almost feels like one at times. He is very happy to work as a paleontologist at the Western Australia Museum in Perth, where they pay him to spend time on his hobby. As well as collecting, studying and writing scientific papers and books about fossils, Ken and his colleagues at the museum have created a great fossil display called “Diamonds to Dinosaurs.”When he is not being a curator or writing about fossils, Ken likes listening to music and playing the piano. He lives in the Jarrah Forest in the hills above Perth, in a glass and timber house that has a large eucalyptus tree growing up through the middle of it. He lives there with his wife, three children, two cats, countless zebra finches, opossums in the roof, bandicoots in the garden, and the odd kangaroo that visits from time to time. ...more