August 9, 2011
Paleontologist Barbie
Posted by Evelyn Mervine
Paleontologist Barbie has arrived!
Paleontologist Barbie arrived today in the mail. After reading this blog post I just couldn’t resist ordering my very own Paleontologist Barbie from ebay. Best $30 I’ve spent in a long time. I think I’ll take her on some adventures with me over the next year.
Wow! She comes with dinosaur friends, a rock hammer, fossils, a map (of Gondwana, I think), a canteen, a field bag, a hat, and a dinosaur frisbee (I think). Look at her awesome shirt with dinosaurs!
Looking for dinosaurs with... Paleontologist Barbie!
Barbie is a silly name, though. I think I’ll re-name her. How about Galena? Any other suggestions?
On twitter @NASA_GESDISC suggested several geology names: “Other names: Amber, Beryl, Emerald, Marble, Olive (short for Olivine), Opal (my favorite for a paleontologist), Ruby.” I like Opal, too, so Paleontologist Barbie’s name is now Opal. Much better :-).
A number of female relatives on my father’s side born in the first couple of decades of the 1900’s had rock/mineral names including Opal, Beryl, Ruby and Pearl. And I think “Aunt Em” was short for Emerald.
Always liked the names Carnelian, Idocrase and Epidote.
Oh man, that’s awesome. I think I need to buy one to put in my office next to all my dinosaur toys; It’s alright for guys to have Barbie’s if they’re related to their research, right?!
Absolutely! Paleontologist Barbie is totally research related. ๐
Barbie! I had a chance to buy one of those 15 years ago! The women in our geology department took one look at it and started suggesting a great many “modifications”. They wanted to take to her hair with dull scissors, suggested sunburn makeup, various scrapes and cuts, and a great deal of dirt and stains on the clothing.
She’s a PALEONTOLOGIST don’t name her after a mineral ๐ How about Cordaites or Calamites or Medullosa? My background is in Carboniferous Paleobotanist so those are all plant names. You could always go with Quetzalcoatlus but that’s doesn’t have quite the ring does it.
spelling/ grammar errors ugh… sorry
When do we get to see photos of you cosplaying her outfit?
Names: Amniota, Salienta, Anura, Caseidae, Sauria, …
Just randomly troll through tolweb.org or http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/Taxonomy/Browser/wwwtax.cgi?mode=Root and you can barely move for suitable names. If I ever have daughters, they may come to rue this day – I had been thinking Andromeda, Mira, Miranda etc. but now I have a whole new field to nick names from!
Wow! I think Sauria might be an even better name than Opal. Might have to go with that… sorry, NASA!
Sauria the Paleontologist. Has a nice ring to it, doesn’t it? ๐
My grandmother is very good at making clothes, so I can TOTALLY have her make me an outfit to match Barbie. I already have khaki shorts and a field hat, so I think I just need grandma to make the dinosaur shirt. I’ll ask her!
Dinosaur graves? Near Germany’s boredr? I guess it makes sense as Hitler was a bigot towards Plateosaurus, and did everything he could to make sure they were persecuted. Man what a fucked up time the 1930s were. Also those paleontologists better put those dino skeletons back in their graves, otherwise they will be haunted by dino poltergeist.
This is indeed awesome! My suggestions for names: the obvious “Ammonite”, and my all-times favorite (and the first I learned as I child) — “Exogyra Columba”:
Picture: http://www.stam.org.il/shvil/047/Ma/494x.jpg)
Information:
Kingdom: Metazoa
Phylum: Mollusca
Class: Bivalvia
Order: Pterioida
Family: Gryphaeidae
Genus: Exogyra
Species: Exogyra columba
I preferred Galena over Opal, but both are worthy names.
Now, WHEN can we expect the HEROINE, GEOLOGIST Barbie?
With her magnetometers, gravitometers, caustic, acetic and noxious chemicals, spectroscope and microscope?
Give in each, a bit of limestone and acetic acid (dilute)…
BASIC specific gravity unit.
REALLY good shades.
So, when? ๐
It might be awhile…Paleo Barbie came out years ago, and I guess didn’t leave enough of an impression. I like the ring of “Geophysicist Barbie” myself, just in response “Math is Hard” Barbie…
Bleh, math is hard for ME. Well, BASIC math is. Advanced math is trivial, it’s number crunching that is the catch. But then, that is what computers are for!
There ya go!
“Math is hard, bleh!” tee shirts. With some fine calculus following… ๐
As a hint, I was USING calculus before I knew WHAT calculus WAS, working with differentiator and integrator circuits, back in the analog days.
We never really used numbers in my MIT math classes. I guess we used “1” sometimes.
In linear circuit electronics, there was TONS of math. But, nothing that knowing equations and a computer couldn’t handle.
I’m pushing 50 now. I STILL have to grind my teeth to remember the months in order or basic multiplication. But, formulae are easy.
CONCEPTS are easy.
Building a mental model is trivial.
Building 3D and 4D mental models simple.
Balancing a checkbook, for computers. ๐
Whoah, you do velociraptor inporsemations too? That’s my favorite way of scaring my brother. It’s a little harder now that I’m older and I can’t do that high-pitched scream quite as well. =P Next you’ll be telling me you like to imitate Gollum over the phone
SO AWESOME! I think I should buy a generic Barbie and make a costume. Could be a group effort! Actually, I think this is a GREAT Accretionary Wedge topic.
EXACTLY my point! Don’t forget the acetic acid and limestone. It makes an impression on the kiddies.
Specific gravity units are trivial to make too, cheaper than a Barbie car! ๐
Bet your student loan sharks would be paid off in a New York minute! ๐
Barbie’s probably short for Barbara, so why not call her that? Or Barb for a less cutesy diminutive. “Barb the paleontologist” sounds good to me. And then you can tell people who ask, why Barb and not Barbie, that she got annoyed with the childish name when she started grad school.
Can’t see her feet. Does she do field work in heels?
ONLY in stiletto heels.
I can see it now.
I’ve got a GREAT sampleeeeeeeeee…
Thud.
Thunk.
Spleak.
The safety line and harness being unfashionable and wrinkling of the clothing.
It’s too bad we cannot buy this doll in Canada. That would have been a really good joke in my office!
[…] I think these origami dinosaurs may need to make friends with Paleontologist Barbie. […]
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