{"id":567,"date":"2021-06-13T14:58:45","date_gmt":"2021-06-13T17:58:45","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/branchdesign.com\/maikabranch\/?p=567"},"modified":"2021-07-13T12:38:10","modified_gmt":"2021-07-13T15:38:10","slug":"bound-to-bones","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/branchdesign.com\/maikabranch\/journalism\/bound-to-bones\/","title":{"rendered":"Bound to Bones"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
This article was written as part of Maika’s Journalism 120 class.<\/em><\/h5>\n\n\n\n

\u201cAtlantic Canada is rich with fossils, if you know what you’re looking for.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It\u2019s a tip shared by On\u00e9sime Sirois as he describes paleontology, a passion of his born through years of fossil-finding and research. He defines paleontology as \u201cThe study of prehistoric life, through the analysis and excavation of fossils.\u201d It binds him to the past, the ghosts of creatures long gone, leaving remnants on the ground we stand on today. Especially so in the Maritimes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sirois was first introduced to the study very young. \u201cReading books as a kid, documentaries, finding fossils on the beach,\u201d All of these served to inspire. \u201cMy purchase of a genuine dinosaur tooth as a kid solidified my passion.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

And his interest is only fueled by his environment – the maritimes being rich in prehistoric history. \u201cNew Brunswick is especially rich in fossils from the carboniferous period, approximately 300-350 million years ago,\u201d He says. \u201cJust along coastlines and cliffs, you can easily find rocks containing fragments of plants, pieces of wood, and even entire tree branches and trunks embedded in cliffs.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Atlantic Canada is no stranger to the marvels of a humid continental climate. Beautiful woodlands, oceans, the marvels of the Bay of Fundy, many of those beloved environments still contain clues to a time long before we were here.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe also have some rather unique examples of fish and amphibians that used to live here. From a much more recent era, a fossil of a Mastodon was discovered in nearby Hillsborough, and is one of the most complete specimens ever discovered.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It\u2019s clear that paleontology is a subject close to Sirois\u2019 heart. \u201cIt was my primary career until sometime in middle school,\u201d He even says, \u201cwhere I began to consider other fields like engineering.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sirois ascribes the change in career to \u201cvarious reasons, though lack of interest certainly wasn’t one of them. A big reason was the money and lack of jobs. Paleontology is a competitive field, and there isn’t much money in the job, so I thought engineering would better fit my skillset and financial preferences.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI also hate the heat and getting dirty, both of which are extremely common things for a paleontologist to encounter,\u201d he laughs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But the passion is still deeply rooted in his heart. \u201cTo this day I still love searching for fossils along the beach and reading about new discoveries. I\u2019m still considering pursuing a second degree in paleobiology, which is the study of the biology of fossil organisms and prehistoric life.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cMy passion hasn’t wavered, it simply has changed its trajectory a bit.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And wherever the future takes him, paleontology will still be waiting. After all, we\u2019re talking hundreds of millions of years here. What\u2019s a few more?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This article was written as part of Maika’s Journalism 120 class. \u201cAtlantic Canada is rich with fossils, if you know what you’re looking for.\u201d It\u2019s a tip shared by On\u00e9sime Sirois as he describes paleontology, a passion of his born … <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":568,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[31,25],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/branchdesign.com\/maikabranch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/567"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/branchdesign.com\/maikabranch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/branchdesign.com\/maikabranch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/branchdesign.com\/maikabranch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/branchdesign.com\/maikabranch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=567"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/branchdesign.com\/maikabranch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/567\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":582,"href":"https:\/\/branchdesign.com\/maikabranch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/567\/revisions\/582"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/branchdesign.com\/maikabranch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/568"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/branchdesign.com\/maikabranch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=567"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/branchdesign.com\/maikabranch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=567"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/branchdesign.com\/maikabranch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=567"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}