Ready when you are: $99, or start for $33 today.
The Undergraduate Guide
How to Become an Employable Paleontologist
The real job numbers, what to study when there's no paleontology major, and how to get into a lab as an undergrad. Written by Evan Jevnikar, a paleontologist with an M.S. from NC State who helped excavate a Nanotyrannus, for students and the parents helping them decide. Read it together and you'll know whether this is the path, and what the next step is if it is.
Checkout is right below. Everything inside is further down.
I'm 16 or older (or I'm the parent or guardian of a student under 16), and I agree to the terms and conditions
The number nobody gives you
permanent paleontology positions advertised per year, 2019 to 2022. Not per university. Per year, across the field.
what families spent on college, on average, last year.
Sources: Paleontological Society Employment Committee, Paleobiology, 2025 (open access). Sallie Mae and Ipsos, How America Pays for College 2026.
Almost nobody talks about the first number before committing to the second. That isn't a reason to quit. It's a reason to plan carefully, and that's what this guide is for.
Hear it from me
What's inside
- The honest picture. Jobs, pay and costs, with where every number comes from, so you and your parents can make this decision with the real numbers in front of you.
- Where you are now. A year-by-year timeline, plus late starters, wrong majors, and schools with no paleontology. You'll know your next step from wherever you are.
- The degree question. Geology or biology, and which courses actually matter. Your electives stop being guesses.
- Research experience. How undergrads actually get into a lab, and the cold emails to send to get there. Plus how to tell which digs are worth your summer.
- The toolkit. Reading papers, public data, abstracts, critical thinking. You show up to a lab already useful.
- The graduate application. Advisors, statements, funding, and what to do if it doesn't work this cycle. You apply with a plan.
- Careers beyond it. Museums, government, mitigation, teaching, science communication. The training leads somewhere either way.
- Templates. Cold emails to labs and advisors, follow-ups, recommendation letter requests and thank-yous, a research CV, and personal statement examples. You never start from a blank page.
Optional add-on: the course database. Most schools don't have a paleontology major, so the real question is which schools teach what you need. The database scores 43 course subjects against 388 schools so you can check before you apply. Add it at checkout for $49.
Get the guide: $99, or start for $33 todayGet the guide: $149, instant access
Is this for you?
Students
You're in high school or college, in the US or planning to study here, and paleontology is the plan.
Parents
You're trying to be supportive and honest at the same time. Read it together. It goes better when the person paying hears the numbers first-hand.
Outside the US
It's built for the American system, because that's the one I've been through. Some of it transfers. A lot of it won't.
Not for you
If you want to learn about dinosaurs, I do that every day for free. This guide is about the profession, not the animals.
Why me
I studied geology at the University of Kansas, then did a master's in biological sciences at NC State, working on tyrannosaur growth. I've spent years in the field, including excavations of Nanotyrannus, Triceratops and Falcarius.
I was headed for a doctorate. Then a serious financial situation hit while I was defending my thesis, and I couldn't afford to continue.
So I'm not describing those job numbers from the outside. I'm one of the people inside them. This is the guide I wish someone had handed me.
What students say about learning from me
“You helped me with a study questioning the ethics of the fossil trade. The paper passed the College Board and I received a Scholar Award and the AP Research Award. Without your contributions my paper wouldn't have passed.”
“It was your resources that helped me learn and gave me the desire to understand and explore in the scholarly world of paleontology.”
“[The masterclasses] were a perfect intermediate between the simplicity of pop science media and all the jargon of research papers… I feel your content was one of the things that helped me realize that paleontology might actually be something I wanted to try to pursue academically.”
The guide itself is new, so these are about my teaching and the resources I've shared, not the guide. That's why it comes with a 7-day guarantee.
Get the guide: $99, or start for $33 todayGet the guide: $149, instant access
7-day guarantee
If you go through it and it isn't what I said it was, send me a note and I'll send your money back. I'm not going to make you argue with a form.
Quick questions
- You post for free every day. Why pay for this?
- What I post is about the animals. This is about the profession: the job numbers, the degree decision, getting into a lab and the grad application, in order and in one place, with the templates. You could piece some of it together online, but it's scattered, often out of date, and rarely written by someone who's done the job.
- Should my student even pursue this?
- That's what the first part is for. Read the honest picture together. If the answer is yes, the rest of the guide is the plan. If it's no, the last part shows where the same training leads, so the time isn't wasted either way.
- My student is in middle school. Is it too early?
- No. Read the first two parts together now. The bigger decisions come when you choose a college, and the guide will be there when you get to them.
- I'm buying for my student. How does that work?
- If your student is under 16, check out with your own name and email. The account is yours, and you go through it together. If they're 16 or older, they can check out with their own email and have their own login.
- When do I get it?
- Right away. Your login arrives by email a few minutes after checkout, and you can also sign in with a one-time code sent to your email.
- Is it a subscription? Do I lose it after 7 days?
- No to both. Pay once, or split it into 3 payments, two weeks apart, that stop on their own. Either way you can come back to any part whenever you need it. The 7 days are your refund window, not your access.
- If I pay in 3, do I get everything right away?
- You get Parts 1 to 3 and the full class replay right away. Parts 4 and 5 open with your second payment two weeks later, and the rest opens with your third. Pay once and everything is open on day one.
- Is it a download?
- No, it's online only. Everything lives in your Daily Dino Guy portal, which works on your phone, tablet or computer.
- What's the course database?
- An optional add-on at checkout: $49. It scores 43 course subjects against 388 schools, so you can compare what schools actually offer.
- Is the price really going up?
- Yes. $99 is the founding price through Monday, October 19 at midnight Eastern. After that it's $149.
- Can my student and I share one login?
- Yes. If your student is under 16, the account is in your name and you use it together.
- What if it isn't for us?
- You have 7 days. Send me a note and I'll refund you.
Get the guide: $99, or start for $33 todayGet the guide: $149, instant access
Daily Dino Guy LLC · PO Box 13547, Greensboro, NC 27415 · [email protected]