In recent years, professional paleontologists have joined cowboys in becoming a dying breed. Jobs in the petroleum industry are drying up. Universities, colleges and museums have been eliminating positions. Many paleontologists end up working in other geology fields. There are hundreds of amateur paleontologists in the United States able to identify different kinds of fossils.
Some amateurs are as knowledgeable as professionals and contribute to the scientific literature.
In Indiana, paleontologists can be found scattered across the state. The Falls of the Ohio State Park, the Indiana State Museum and Geological Survey, Indiana University and some of the regional branches, and some of the other colleges. Fossils are a part of our natural world. They tell stories about the earth of long ago. Some make great decorator pieces.