CofC’s Indiana Jones talks about his sea monster discovery and other paleontological treasures
12/06/22 • 17 min
Scott Persons, College of Charleston assistant professor of geology and curator of the Mace Brown Museum of Natural History, and a team of researchers generated a lot of excitement when they discovered the Serpentisuchops (sur-pen-ta-soo-kops), a previously unknown prehistoric marine reptile in 2022.
Persons knew he wanted to be a paleontologist from the time he was two and a half years old. To test his determination, Persons’ parents lied about his age (he was 12 years old) to enroll him in a dinosaur hunting exhibition in Wyoming’s Glenrock Badlands.
“My parents were very concerned about this career path I’d chosen,” explains Persons. “They thought, we'll send him to this camp, throw him into the deep end in the hot Wyoming sun with a shovel and pickaxe for a couple of weeks, and we'll see if he still wants to stick with it. And as it happened, I fell in love with the work and the environment.”
Since that initial expedition, Persons has returned to the Badlands without exception every single summer. Now, CofC students join him on a fossil expedition at the College’s Paleontology Field School in Glenrock. After listening to Persons on this Speaking Of ... podcast episode, you’ll be eager to hop on a plane and head to the Badlands.
Featured in this Episode
W. Scott Persons grew up on a rural farm in the mountains of North Carolina. He first became a “dino-maniac“ at the age of two-and-a-half when his father bought him his first dinosaur book. Since then, he has joined fossil hunting expeditions in Mongolia’s Gobi Desert; the volcanic ash beds of Liaoning, China; Africa’s Olduvai Gorge and throughout the American and Canadian West. Persons has had the honor of studying and working under his two biggest childhood heroes -- world-renowned paleontologists Robert Bakker and Philip Currie. His research focuses on understanding dinosaur ecology and the evolution of dinosaur locomotion. His work has been featured on the National Geographic and Discovery channels and in the Smithsonian and Discover magazines. In addition to his role as assistant professor, Persons serves as curator of the Mace Brown Museum of Natural History. So far, Persons has “hunted for fossils and eaten pizza on six continents.’
Resources
CofC Paleontologists Uncover Strange New Prehistoric Sea Monster
No Bones About It: CofC’s Paleontology Field School is Way Cool
CofC Professor, Alum Help Identify New Species of ‘Tyrannosaurus’
Personal Website: http://scottpersons.org/
Department of Geology and Environmental Geosciences at CofC
Scott Persons, College of Charleston assistant professor of geology and curator of the Mace Brown Museum of Natural History, and a team of researchers generated a lot of excitement when they discovered the Serpentisuchops (sur-pen-ta-soo-kops), a previously unknown prehistoric marine reptile in 2022.
Persons knew he wanted to be a paleontologist from the time he was two and a half years old. To test his determination, Persons’ parents lied about his age (he was 12 years old) to enroll him in a dinosaur hunting exhibition in Wyoming’s Glenrock Badlands.
“My parents were very concerned about this career path I’d chosen,” explains Persons. “They thought, we'll send him to this camp, throw him into the deep end in the hot Wyoming sun with a shovel and pickaxe for a couple of weeks, and we'll see if he still wants to stick with it. And as it happened, I fell in love with the work and the environment.”
Since that initial expedition, Persons has returned to the Badlands without exception every single summer. Now, CofC students join him on a fossil expedition at the College’s Paleontology Field School in Glenrock. After listening to Persons on this Speaking Of ... podcast episode, you’ll be eager to hop on a plane and head to the Badlands.
Featured in this Episode
W. Scott Persons grew up on a rural farm in the mountains of North Carolina. He first became a “dino-maniac“ at the age of two-and-a-half when his father bought him his first dinosaur book. Since then, he has joined fossil hunting expeditions in Mongolia’s Gobi Desert; the volcanic ash beds of Liaoning, China; Africa’s Olduvai Gorge and throughout the American and Canadian West. Persons has had the honor of studying and working under his two biggest childhood heroes -- world-renowned paleontologists Robert Bakker and Philip Currie. His research focuses on understanding dinosaur ecology and the evolution of dinosaur locomotion. His work has been featured on the National Geographic and Discovery channels and in the Smithsonian and Discover magazines. In addition to his role as assistant professor, Persons serves as curator of the Mace Brown Museum of Natural History. So far, Persons has “hunted for fossils and eaten pizza on six continents.’
Resources
CofC Paleontologists Uncover Strange New Prehistoric Sea Monster
No Bones About It: CofC’s Paleontology Field School is Way Cool
CofC Professor, Alum Help Identify New Species of ‘Tyrannosaurus’
Personal Website: http://scottpersons.org/
Department of Geology and Environmental Geosciences at CofC
Previous Episode
Stories of "Scandalous Charleston," and the Truth Behind the Myths
It may not come as a surprise that what we know about Charleston’s history is not necessarily the truth. Many of the stories recorded in the history books were written with biased perspectives, ignoring marginalized voices.
In this episode we talk to author and professional tour guide Leigh Handal '81 who says the true history of Charleston, SC doesn't need embellishment. Gathering evidence from trial transcripts and archival newspaper clippings to record the past she says, “The truth is interesting enough.”
In her latest book Storied & Scandalous Charleston, a History of Piracy and Prohibition, Rebellion and Revolution, she reveals well documented, captivating events like the time the infamous Reverend Jenkins Orchestra band had a command performance for King George in England and the time convicted inmate John Fisher stayed at the Old City Jail with his wife Lavinia to die instead of taking his chance at freedom.
Handal is the perfect guide for those who want to dive deeper into the history of Charleston, and says she loves brining visitors to graveyards.
“I could spend most of my day hanging out in graveyards. I like dead people and I like to find out about them because everybody has a story to tell.”
Featured on this Episode:
Leigh Jones Handal ’81 has been an avid student of Charleston’s history since she was a Brownie Scout. Handal has been a licensed tour guide for more than twenty years and owns her own tour company, Charleston Raconteurs. She also serves as Chief Advancement Officer at the American College of Building Arts, where she once had an office at the Charleston District Jail, just down the hall from where Lavinia Fisher awaited her execution.
Resources on this Episode:
Storied & Scandalous Charleston, a History of Piracy and Prohibition, Rebellion and Revolution
Next Episode
Visiting Edgar Allan Poe’s Lowcountry Haunts with Professor Scott Peeples
Famed American author Edgar Allan Poe, who lived from 1809 to 1849, was a poet, literary critic, short story writer and creator of the modern horror tale. He experienced great tragedy in his life and was notorious for his drinking and dark temperament, which frequently got him into trouble. Poe spent time in the Charleston Lowcountry while serving in the U.S. Army (under an assumed name) he at Fort Moultrie on Sullivan’s Island from 1827 to 1828.
As Poe’s 214th birthday approaches on Jan 19, 2023, his enduring popularity in American popular culture only continues to grow. Netflix recently released The Pale Blue Eye (the title comes from Poe’s short story The Tell-Tale Heart). The historical thriller, based on a 2006 novel by Louis Bayard, is set at West Point, where Poe was a cadet before he was court-martialed in 1831. In this fictionalized film, Poe is enlisted by a detective (played by Christian Bale) to help solve a series of grisly murders.
In this podcast episode, Scott Peeples, a Poe scholar, English professor and interim chair of the Department of English, takes us on a tour of some of the Lowcountry landmarks associated with Poe.
Featured on this Episode
During his 26 years at the College of Charleston, Scott Peeples, English professor and interim chair of the English Department, has taught a wide array of courses on topics ranging from Gothicism to nineteenth-century American poetry to Bob Dylan. He has published extensively on Edgar Allan Poe and other nineteenth-century writers, most recently as author of The Man of the Crowd: Edgar Allan Poe and the City and as co-editor of The Oxford Handbook of Edgar Allan Poe. Peeples served as chair of the English Department from 2012 to 2017 and is a past president of the Poe Studies Association and the Southeastern American Studies Association.
Resources for this Episode
The Man of the Crowd: Edgar Allan Poe and the City by Scott Peeples
The Afterlife of Edgar Allan Poe by Scott Peeples
Edgar Allan Poe Revisited by Scott Peeples
Edgar Allan Poe’s suburban dream essay by Scott Peeples
Why should you read Edgar Allan Poe? TED-Ed video on YouTube with more than 1.7 million views written by Scott Peeples
The Pale Blue Eye (adapted by the director, Scott Cooper, from Louis Bayard’s 2006 novel of the same name)
The Raven by Edgar Allan Poe
Annabel Lee by Edgar Allan Poe
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