The life of a fossil hunter

Australian palaeontologist Professor John Long has spent a lifetime expanding what we know about ancient animals, especially fish from the Devonian age, about 400 million years ago. John grew up in Victoria and was educated at Monash University. His fossil expeditions have taken him throughout Australia and to places as diverse as Vietnam, Iran and Antarctica. His ground-breaking discoveries include contributing to our understanding of how reproduction evolved, and the reasons behind global mass extinctions. Science outreach is an important part of John’s work and he’s written more than 20 popular science books. Recently the tide of authorship turned the other way, and John became the subject of a new book in the Aussie STEM stars series. We asked the book’s author, Dr Danielle Clode, who’s also a Cosmos contributor, to talk to John about his life and work.

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