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Welcome to STEM Tuesday: Author Interview, a repeating feature for the last Tuesday of every month. Go Science-Tech-Engineering-Math!

Today we’re interviewing Alison Pearce Stevens, author of Rhinos in Nebraska. Rhinos is the tale of a supervolcano, its aftermath, and the intrepid scientist who discovered one of the world’s greatest paleontology sites–an ancient Nebraska waterhole filled with the fossilized skeletons of hundreds of animals that look like they came straight out of Africa.

This book is a Junior Library Guild Gold Standard selection that’s won three Nebraska Book Awards!

Andi Diehn: Time as a character – there’s a lot of discussion of time in your book – the time that’s passed since ancient animals lived in Nebraska, the time it takes to turn bones into fossils, how time can change a landscape and make it hard to find the exact location where a fossil was found. Why is geological time an important concept for kids (and adults) to understand?

Alison Pearce Stevens: How often do we say we’re “running out of time” or “don’t have time” for something? I know I say it a lot. Time is this commodity that always seems to be in short supply, but our concept of time is limited by our (rather limited) experience. I think taking a step back to get some big-picture perspective can be really helpful. On a geologic time scale, we humans exist for the blink of an eye. Given that, maybe some of the issues we feel pressured about aren’t actually so pressing. I think temporal perspective-taking can help us prioritize what’s really important in our lives, so we can be more content with what we have and put our energy into bigger, truly pressing issues.

As a side note, time played a big role in how this book came to be. I was working at University of Nebraska State Museum on a series of exhibits about Nebraska’s past, present, and future, and one section focused on the Ashfall Fossil Beds. Now a state park, it’s the site of an ancient water hole filled with hundreds of skeletons of ancient animals, from camels and rhinos to crowned cranes and turtles. There were elephants around then, too. It looks like something you would find in modern-day Africa—but it’s in the middle of North America. One day, it hit me—twelve million years ago, those animals were running around in what’s now my backyard. It was kind of mind-blowing. That’s the moment I knew I had to write Rhinos in Nebraska.

Andi: I love the descriptions and discussions of tools – field notes, GPS, topographic map, scanning electron microscope. 

Alison: Field notes tie to any kind of journaling or record-keeping. Writing down what we see, feel, and experience gives us a way to track what’s happening in our lives, so we can gain some perspective on things as they play out—or simply have a record of them that we can refer back to. I track things like rainfall and bloom time and when I see migratory birds in my yard, and I regularly go back to see how those things have changed (a lot, it turns out).

If you’ve ever tried to catch them all in Pokémon Go, you’ve used GPS. It’s also essential for geocaching, if families have done that. GPS is how the map app in a phone or car knows where you are and tells you where to turn next.

Topographic maps are commonly used by hikers. They’re super useful when there are multiples trails, so you can tell which ones are steep or have lots of hills, and which ones provide a gentler hike.

If you look up SEM images, they are super cool—the detail on tiny things like pollen grains are beyond anything you’ve imagined.

Andi: I love this line about Mike Voorhies: “It was the best he could do at the time with the information he had available.” How does this quote reflect the scientific process?

Alison: To me, that line summarizes the scientific process. One of the main things I wanted readers to take away from the book was how we know about things that happened millions of years ago. I think people tend to think of science as a bunch of facts. We do have facts that are the outcome of scientific investigation. Barrel-bodied rhinos used to live in Nebraska, for example. We can say that with certainty after discovering their fossils, but answering other questions—like when the volcano that buried the Ashfall animals erupted—takes time and patience. Science is a process, and our ability to figure something out is limited by the available equipment and technology.

I like to think there are similarities between scientific investigation and the justice system. Both collect and analyze evidence and use it to reach a conclusion. I would certainly hope that if new evidence comes to light during (or after) a trial, the jurors or judge would be willing to reconsider the conclusions they had reached up to that point, and science is no different.

Andi: Convergent evolution – I love the idea that similar traits can evolve in organisms from different parts of the world. How might kids think about convergent evolution as it applies to organisms they’re familiar with?

Alison: Convergent evolution happens when different organisms living in different places come to share specific characteristics. It happens over time as certain traits help individuals survive and reproduce. The example I use in the book is hummingbirds and sunbirds, which live in Africa. Both have long, curved bills to drink nectar from trumpet-shaped flowers. Birds with longer bills would have been able to drink from tall flowers more easily, so they would have gotten more food. That means they can have more babies, all of which would also have long bills.

The appearance of falcons, hawks, and other birds of prey is actually an example of convergent evolution, as well. DNA evidence tells us that peregrine falcons are more closely related to parrots than hawks or eagles—but those sharp talons, forward-facing eyes, and curved beak help them hunt, so they’ve come to look more like hawks and eagles than their parrot cousins. Another example is eyesight, which evolved separately in vertebrates (animals with backbones) and squid and octopus. Even though we all have eyes, an octopus’s eye is structured differently than ours.

Andi: Details like fossilized seeds stuck in rhinos’ teeth are great! Also great that when the paleobotanists got involved, this was more evidence of a growing team. How does teamwork improve science?

Alison: Teamwork is essential for science, and that’s especially true when you’re studying something as vast as the Ashfall Fossil Beds. Scientists develop expertise in specific areas, so when they encounter something outside their area, they need to find another expert to weigh in. Mike Voorhies studied extinct mammals, so he needed other experts to help with plants, birds, and even dating the age of the volcanic ash. I think some of the best science comes from coordinated team efforts—when lots of people collaborate, you get more creative ideas about how to answer a question and a variety of approaches to call upon to collect the data you need. And collaboration is fun! If you’re part of a good team, you enjoy the work more than you would toiling away on your own.

Andi: There are many times when it seems like the team fails – why is that an important part of the story?

Alison: Every success comes on the heels of a series of failures. That’s a pretty standard story in science—and in life! The process of figuring something out isn’t always easy and usually requires some serious creativity (scientists have to be creative—they don’t get much credit for that!), so there are failures and false-starts and partial successes until they finally get an answer. And then the answer might not be what they expected—so they have to re-evaluate, ask new questions, and start the process of investigation all over again.

Andi: I love Matt Huynh’s illustrations – how do they help make the story accessible?

Alison: Matt’s illustrations are perfect for the book. His woodcuts bring these ancient animals to life in such an unusual way, and they help readers envision what North America might have looked like twelve million years ago. Although the animals were similar to modern African species, there were some key differences, and Matt’s illustrations show our ancient animals as they might have looked. Plus, they’re just fun.

Alison Pearce Stevens has an M.S. in zoology and Ph.D. in ecology, evolution, and behavior. She has researched and written hundreds of articles for Science News Explores, Highlights for Children, and ASK magazine, among others. Her book Rhinos in Nebraska (Henry Holt BYR) details the discovery and excavation of one of the world’s premier paleontology sites, and Animal Climate Heroes (Henry Holt BYR) showcases four incredible animals working to protect their ecosystems—and us. Both were Junior Library Guild Gold Standard Selections. She and her husband have three dogs, one of which would make a great detective dog.

Andi Diehn works as an editor for Nomad Press and has written many STEM books for kids!