Africa, Siberia, South America, New Zealand… Dr Patricia Vickers-Rich travels to the ends of the globe to unearth tatler_tatler_stories of humanity’s past. Currently based in Australia, the US-born paleontologist and geologist is an internationally respected dinosaur expert whose name is closely tied to Australia’s Dinosaur Cove. Together with her husband, fellow paleontologist Tom Rich, she spent some 30 years excavating the famed fossil site in Victoria, where they made several significant fossil discoveries.

Part of Patricia’s efforts to promote science include co-authoring at least 16 books as well as David Attenborough’s Emmy-winning documentary First Life. The founding director of Australia’s Monash Science Centre has also helped to build science museums in Timor-Leste, Argentina, Namibia, Russia and the Middle East. Her achievements in the field of paleontology and geology have made her a most suitable chairperson of the UNESCO International Geoscience Program (IGCP) Scientific Board (2012 to 2015).

Patricia is no stranger to Singapore, having been involved in a number of science exhibitions here. She also donated material from her own fossil collection to Singapore’s first museum of natural history, the Lee Kong Chian Natural History Museum (formerly Raffles Museum of Biodiversity Research). Set to open later this year, the $46 million museum will house centuries-old exhibits and almost-complete fossils of three dinosaurs from the Jurassic period.

Singapore Tatler caught up with Patricia when she was in town to launch her latest exhibition, Dinosaurs: Dawn to Extinction, at the ArtScience Museum at Marina Bay Sands. She is the curator of the exhibition, which runs until 27 July 2014.

Patricia Vickers-Rich

1. You’re a woman in a field pretty much dominated by men, part of a rare breed. Growing up, were you very different from other girls in terms of your interests and passions?

I was a farm girl. I grew up on a farm where the women were strong and very much a part of the environment and the productivity. My mother, although she mostly stayed home as a mum, did things like bookkeeping and so on, so she really worked. So in the community I grew up in, I don’t think I was so odd. I was very interested in biodiversity and natural history and I think some of the other girls were more interested in economics and design, but because I grew up in a farming community, I wasn’t seen as different.

There are other places where that is pretty much the case, however. But increasingly, I see more and more women entering the field of geology.

 

2. Why did you pursue a career in paleontology?

I was always interested in it but as a child, I was more interested in biodiversity.  My favourite uncle built me a fantastic dollhouse made up of pipes, scrap metal and so on. He brought it to my home and I outfitted it. When he came over to see what I had put in it, he expected things like a rocking chair, a stove and a doll. Instead I had put shelves and shelves of bottles with insects in them because we lived on a farm and I was interested in these things. Poor insects, I should have been more caring about their lives, but I was just interested in those things. 

When I was about 12 years old, I was really interested in medicine and I thought I would go into medicine. I was the first person in both my mother’s and father’s side of the family to go to university and until then, I was still interested in medicine. About 3000 students had made it to the faculty at University of California, Berkeley. Coming from a very small high school, however that was too many (students) for me, so I looked around the university for the smallest department and found the Department of Paleontology which had just 10 undergraduates. I told myself that’s where I’m going and I’ve just stayed.

 

 

3. What do you enjoy about paleontology?

I love being out in the field looking for fossils, but I grew up in a field, so there was that background. Not that I don’t like visiting cities, but if I could spend most of my life in a field, I would.  One of my most memorable finds out on the field was a little tooth I found in Australia in the 1970s. At first we thought it was related to a bandicoot, a large mouse with a tail and a pouch, but it turned out to be the tooth of a platypus, the first really old platypus ever found on the planet. It was just a tooth and if you know the platypus now, they don’t have teeth. They’ve lost their teeth over the years but in the past, they had very well developed teeth. Little discoveries like this gave us insights into things we really had no idea about: the ancestral history of the platypus, and the history of the site and what used to live there. That was really amazing.

 

4. So it’s those 'wow' moments that have kept you in the field for the past 40 years?

Absolutely! Also, you’re the first one to see these ancient fossils and you’re putting all these bits and pieces of the past together. Another thing I really like about this field is that it’s really multidisciplinary. I get a lot out of working with many different people who all have different specialties. I have mine, they have theirs and we pull together the big picture of what’s going on. It’s amazing how much you learn.

 

 

 

5. You’ve made a major contribution to the promotion of science not only in Australia but beyond, and now you’ve created this exhibition at the ArtScience Museum. What went into the selection of the pieces to exhibit?

My concept was to give a view of the whole timespan, not just the dinosaurs. The concept was to tell the story of the beginning of life right up to the present. With this exhibition, we really want to get frontline science out to the public so that they understand what’s coming out of science and how scientists go about thinking and determining the things you see.

It’s the best of the best for me and I chose to come to this ArtScience Museum because it’s an art-science museum where they take both art and science seriously.

Apart from the fossils and replicas, visitors can see Peter Trusser’s art which is really the best scientific presentation. His paintings are based on scientific evidence and explanations are given for how he does his art. So we get to look into the modern world, the environment in which the animals live today and their closest counterparts on fossil record.

My view is to look at life through time with dinosaurs being the centrepoint. We look at them with as much up-to-date research as possible. There are many dinosaur exhibitions and many are fun, some inaccurate… but our aim is to tell the public what scientists know in a way that they can understand it, without overly technical terms.

My favourite piece in the exhibition has to be the Leaellynasaura (a small, big-eyed theropod), named after my daughter who discovered it in Australia in 1989.

 

 

 

6. Tell us about your children.

My husband Tom and I have a daughter and a son. We used to take our children out on the field with us from the time they were only a few months old. We lived in Australia at that time and we used to take them as far as Southern Africa in a backpack. My son, Tim, also has a dinosaur named after him, Timimus (a mysterious ornithomimid).

 

7. How many expeditions do you undertake in a year?

Sometimes we have more than one expedition a year, some years, usually due to funding issues, there are none. I usually organise these trips and we’ve been to so many places around the world, from Africa to Siberia and South America. We go to the most isolated places and they’re really beautiful with absolutely superb landscapes. My main area of interest now is Saudi Arabia and South Africa. We’re looking at the origin of animals.

 

 

8. Is funding the main stumbling block in the development of paleontology?

Yes. Many people are passionate about it but funding is becoming increasingly difficult. Children love dinosaurs and fossil records tell us about about them, about break points, climate change, what factors made it possible for certain species to make it across these really tight boundaries and so on. These are things we all need to know more about, because we are facing some difficult times ahead where climate change is concerned. Every tiny decision we make has to be made with wisdom and that wisdom comes from learning and reading. We have children and our children will go on to have kids of their own; we love them and we should do the right thing to give them the best thing possible.

 

9. You’re a globetrotting paleontologist, geologist, educator and you've authored a number of books. Do you ever find time for other hobbies?

Those are my hobbies. I do like music, and am learning to play the charango, a South American stringed instrument. I also like languages which is useful when you travel. I can count in several different languages (laughs). My whole life is quite varied. I don’t need a vacation because my life is a vacation. I just enjoy learning a lot. Yes, I’m busy, but I sleep very well and I don’t worry a lot.

 

 

10. What’s your guiding principle in life?

My own attitude towards life is to do the best I can to get the best outcomes out of the situation I’m in. I don’t look back on it other than to learn something for the future. I wouldn’t say, “If only I had done it this way”. Instead, I’d think, “I did it the best way I could”.

 

 

Photography: Lionel Lai/Acepix

Grooming: Sha Shamsi

Images: Marina Bay Sands