Kallie Moore

Fossil Librarian

Field: Paleontology (the study of fossils)

"College was an awesome time for me as the first member of my immediate family to attend. I absorbed everything I could about ancient life."

Kallie Moore

Growing up in the fossiliferous limestones of Kansas, I was lucky enough to have woods behind my house. I would spend hours collecting chunks of rock that my dad and I would bust apart looking for shelly fossils. The excitement of being the first human to see a fossil in millions of years has never left me.

In my job I help people use the fossil collection at the University of Montana. Researchers either come to UM for the collection or I can send specimens to them as a loan. I also add fossil information into our database. Collections can serve as indoor field sites. They house specimens from areas that are hard to get to, dangerous, gone, or wrecked by development. Many new species are found in these collections, and researchers can make discoveries without ever having to go into the field.

In the immortal words of BIll Nye, "Science Rules!" Science is an amazing tool to discover the ancient past, helping to better understand our current world.