A familiar face at the Royal Tyrrell Museum Dr. Caleb Brown has been hired as the new Curator of Dinosaur Systematics and Evolution.
Brown has a long history with the Tyrrell and began volunteering in the Preparation lab as a high school student. He earned his Bachelor of Science in Zoology and his Masters of Science in Palaeontology from the University of Calgary and his PH.D. in Palaeontology at the University of Toronto.
“I have been at the museum here for about five years in the Postdoctoral Fellow Role and now I am upgrading to a curatorial position,” Brown tells the Mail. “Much of the research part of the position will be similar. The main role of the postdoctoral position and one of the great things about it was it was given freedom and resources to do research, and that will continue in the curatorial position. What will change is there will be more other museum responsibilities, factoring into things like outreach and gallery development and working with the Alberta Historical Resources Act to protect Alberta’s fossil heritage.”
His hiring comes at an interesting time for the museum. There is a multimillion-dollar expansion being completed and is also seeing some of the original founding palaeontologists at the museum approaching the end of their careers.
“What is happening is we have sort of a cohort shift, with the first generation of cohorts either approaching or are at retirement age and new folks are coming in. The museum is going to look towards replacing those with similar researchers but not necessarily replacing them with “like-with-like,” he said.
“It’s a very exciting time for the museum.”
photo courtesy of the Royal Tyrrell Museum of Palaeontology, Drumheller Canada
