It is my second day at my new summer research position at the Royal Ontario Museum (Toronto). I will be studying and writing a detailed description of dinosaur brains, and get paid to do it! I am so far enjoying my time in the lab very much, and apparently my choice of the plaid shirt today has served me well in endearing me to the paleontologists. My absolute favourite part of the orientation that took place yesterday was visiting the highly secured storage room with all of the vertebrate fossils. I was simply mesmerized: it was literally like taking a stroll through geological time. If one subject was to compel me to leave my pursuit of a medical career, it would be paleontology.Currently, I am just familiarizing myself with the anatomical terms, since, as my PI puts it, it's like "learning a new language." The textbook he offered is called Vertebrates: Comparative Anatomy, Function, Evolution by Kardong (3e). I am assigned to read the chapters on the skull, nervous system, and sensory systems (150+ pages, hooray!). While I am quite familiar with the latter two owing to my background in neuroscience, skull anatomy is just Greek to me.
During lunch today, the lab people talked about the field work that I will take part in. Sounds like I need to get used to porta-potties and not taking showers!
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