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do you still remember the “graduation photo of one person” ten years ago?

in 2014, xue yifan, a 2010 paleontology student at peking university, took a graduation photo for the entire department by himself, which attracted a lot of attention to the "unpopular" major of paleontology."the loneliest major in peking university" and "if one student skips class, the whole department will be on holiday."

in july 2014, xue yifan walked on the peking university campus in his graduation gown. photo courtesy of visual china

when tao li entered the university the following year, paleontology at peking university had been passed down for six generations. when he graduated with a doctorate this year, he found that his major was still not popular: there were only one or two new students each year, or there was no new student at all.

in the past two years, it has become increasingly difficult to choose a major. "biochemistry, environmental materials science and engineering" is a dead end, civil engineering is not an option, finance graduates become tellers, journalism is worse than choosing a major, law is rated as a "red card" major every year, and computer science no longer seems to be the "version answer"... as many traditional popular majors are "overcrowded", many people have turned their attention to unpopular majors.

"there's certainly no paleontology in it. it's the darkest of the darkest."jiang you, a popular science editor who studies ancient birds, said.

paleontology, as the name suggests, is the study of ancient organisms. for example, scientists can study the origin and evolution of animals, plants, and humans by digging fossils. the familiar jurassic dinosaurs are typical ancient organisms.

jurassic landscape/photo from visual china

because ancient creatures from billions of years ago have nothing to do with our daily lives."paleontology" has also become a "cold" major in the eyes of ordinary people.

a major that is even cooler than archaeology

"four people came in, and three of them ran away."xu xing, academician of the chinese academy of sciences and director of the institute of vertebrate paleontology and paleoanthropology, chinese academy of sciences, said.

more than 30 years ago, as his classmates changed their careers and worked in economics, law, computer science and other fields, he became the only graduating master's student at the institute of vertebrate paleontology and paleoanthropology that year.

years later, the enrollment situation has improved. in 2018, when jiang you was admitted to the institute of vertebrate paleontology and paleoanthropology, chinese academy of sciences (hereinafter referred to as “ivpp”), he foundthere are 13 people in the whole grade, but most of them are "cross-examination" from undergraduate majors such as geology, biology, economics, and aquaculture.

the "sunshine college entrance examination", a platform designated by the ministry of education, shows that at the undergraduate level,there are only three colleges and universities that offer the major of "paleontology", while there are 34 colleges and universities that offer "archaeology".even if there is an increase in the number of majors at the graduate level, there are only 19 related "paleontology and stratigraphy" majors.

paleontologists out in the wild / photo from visual china

moreover, there are a large number of sub-fields under paleontology.each research institution has different research areas.

xu xing introduced that the contents taught at peking university, nanjing university and some geological universities are mostly in the direction of paleoinvertebrate zoology and paleobotany, while the institute of vertebrate paleontology mainly teaches paleontology. "95% of the research force in domestic paleontology is in the institute of vertebrate paleontology."

therefore, when jiang you wanted to learn about vertebrates such as dinosaurs, the only choice he had was the institute of vertebrate paleontology. after studying for half a year, he successfully passed the exam from industrial design to a major related to paleontology.

paleontology and archaeology have many similarities, for example, they often need to go out into the wild. the difference is that paleontological fossils are more widely distributed. when searching for fossils in the wild, jiang you often walk more than 20 kilometers and it is common to sleep in the open.

jiang you also has to master the skills of identifying fossils in the wild. in the anatomy class, which accounts for the most credits, the teacher will ask students to draw sketches of the skeletons of yellow croaker, toads, turtles, crocodiles, dinosaurs, cats, dogs, birds and other creatures based on the evolution of species. for the crocodile species alone, more than 200 bones must be drawn, which is "very, very difficult."

students majoring in paleontology usually need to draw their own examination materials/photo provided by the interviewee

graduation was not easy. in order to complete his graduation thesis, he needed to find all the existing pigeons and compare them with the pigeon fossils dug out from the ground. just to find specimens of the snow pigeon species, he went to universities in beijing, chengdu, yunnan and other places to look for collections.

daily life of paleontology students/photo provided by the interviewee

after obtaining a master's degree with great difficulty, he joined a scientific publishing house, becoming one of the few paleontology students who "changed careers"."out of ten people, five may pursue further studies, three may go to public institutions, and the remaining two may change careers."

the "window period" is disappearing

there are many traditional employment directions for paleontologists. in addition to doing scientific research in universities and research institutions, they can also work in natural museums, nature reserves, geological parks, as well as local land and resources departments, geological exploration departments, oil and gas companies and other units.

like many popular majors, paleontology also had a "window period".

er dao, a senior engineer at a provincial natural history museum who has been in the industry for more than ten years, pointed out that in the past decade, all regions have attached importance to the development of fossil resources. for example, yunnan, sichuan, hubei, chongqing and other places have developed tourism projects centered on dinosaurs. the professional transformation of natural history museums in various provinces has also increased the demand for professional talents.

natural history museum scene/photo from visual china

take the natural history museum as an example. as a major employment outlet for paleontology graduates, its scale continues to expand.in 2023, meng qingjin, director of the national museum of natural history, pointed out that there are more than 400 natural history museums in the country, and "in the 10 years from 2011 to 2020, the construction scale of comprehensive natural history museums has increased by 237,000 square meters."

erdao has personally experienced this change. in 2013, he was the only one in the museum who majored in paleontology. since then, the museum has successively recruited three or four graduate students in the fields of paleofish, paleobirds, cenozoic and mesozoic.

but whenin recent years, the paleontology job "market" has begun to show signs of saturation.

first of all, the "threshold" for scientific research institutes is getting higher and higher."one or two sci articles are not very competitive." in order to stay in the institute, tao li published papers in the three top academic journals before graduation.“you may be admitted to a research position this year, but you may not be able to do so in three to five years.”

the number of museum jobs is shrinking.er dao pointed out that public institutions in various places are streamlining their staff, and many new natural history museums will be saturated with positions within three to five years. "in the past two years, there are not as many people working in museums as before."

natural history museum scene/photo from visual china

for master's graduates, this impact is particularly obvious. in early 2022, jiang you and his classmates found that theythere are not many jobs that match your major to choose from, and some positions have restrictions on research directions.

for example, in the civil service exam, there is an exclusion condition for "geology (not paleontology)"; oil and gas companies only want people with a focus on ancient fish; museum positions are "once in a thousand years", "this year they want graduates with a major in mammals, but those with a major in birds cannot apply"; when applying for a geography teacher at an education and training institution, "they won't accept you as soon as they hear you have a major in paleontology."

phds are still competitive

if a student can sit on the "bench" and study hard all the way to a doctorate, it will be relatively easier for him to find a job. many interviewees pointed out thatwhen they reach the doctoral level, it is not difficult for students majoring in paleontology to find a "good job" in the general sense.

in february 2024, tao li, who was still a doctoral student, received an invitation to join a research institute as a postdoctoral fellow at an academic conference. at this time, only three and a half years had passed since he graduated from college.

this is not an isolated case. jiang you said that many ordinary first-tier and second-tier universities have opened large courses in paleontology and are recruiting teachers with related majors.“you can go there after you graduate with a phd. it has always been like this.”; museums and other institutions also prefer doctoral students,"a master's degree holder might be a 'technician', while a doctorate holder would be a management trainee."

dinosaur fossils/photo from visual china

especially at the doctoral level,graduates in different sub-fields are highly competitive in their respective fields.xu xing said that some universities in shandong and liaoning would ask him to recommend students majoring in paleontology when they wanted to recruit teachers. "but we train very few doctoral students every year. students are unwilling to come, and (the universities) have no choice."

"in most natural history museums in china, the salary and research conditions are not up to par," said hong yangshan. like most of his classmates, hong yangshan initially believed that as a basic subject, the best career path for paleontology was to do research, and staying in the institute was his "first choice."

however, in the past two years, after graduating with a doctorate, hong yangshan discovered that some museums not only have a staffing system for public institutions, but also have good salary packages. in the end, he successfully applied for a research position in paleontology at a natural history museum in a northern province or city.

natural history museum scene/photo from visual china

despite this, people in the industry are not blindly optimistic about the employment situation of paleontology graduates. as xu xing said,at least in the past two years, we have been able to absorb some people.but paleontology is a minor subject after all, and it is not certain whether it will have such a good employment environment in the long run."

of course, in addition to the external environment, "whether you are employed or not is related to your personal ability.no matter whether the major is popular or unpopular, only those with ability can find a position to shine.jiang you concluded.

(in order to protect the privacy of the interviewees, jiang you, hong yangshan, er dao, and tao li are all pseudonyms in this article)