Jason P. Schein

Executive Director, Paleontologist, and Educator

Jason Schein is a writer, naturalist, explorer, educator, and a paleontologist. He grew up in Alabama, and with encouragement from his family, inherited and developed from an early age a deep love and fascination with nature - both past and present. Early memories of fossil-hunting trips around the state and the unbridled exhilaration accompanying every discovery fueled his imagination and drive through graduate school and into his professional career. He now dedicates his time to sharing and creating similar experiences with his own family and others.

Jason is the Founding Executive Director of the Elevation Science Institute (formerly known as the Bighorn Basin Paleontological Institute). He also serves as a researcher and educator within the organization.

Curriculum Vitae

Research

Jason’s research interests are varied and include Mesozoic (primarily Cretaceous) vertebrate marine and terrestrial faunas and ecosystems, paleoecology, paleobiogeography, taphonomy, biostratigraphy, functional morphology, sedimentology, and general natural history. He has conducted paleontological field work in the southeastern U.S., Montana, Wyoming, and North & South Dakota, as well as Patagonian Argentina. He is the former co-founder and co-leader of the Bighorn Basin Dinosaur Project at the New Jersey State Museum. He has published almost thirty academic papers and abstracts on topics ranging from modern echinoderm remains to giant Late Cretaceous sauropod dinosaurs.

Jason earned both a B.S. and an M.S. in Geology at Auburn University.

Selected Publications

James V. Andrews, Jason P. Schein & Matt Friedman (2023). An earliest Paleocene squirrelfish (Teleostei: Beryciformes: Holocentroidea) and its bearing on the timescale of holocentroid evolution, Journal of Systematic Palaeontology, 21:1, 2168571, DOI: 10.1080/14772019.2023.2168571
Gallagher T., Poole J., Schein JP. 2021. Evidence of integumentary scale diversity in the late Jurassic Sauropod Diplodocus sp. from the Mother’s Day Quarry, Montana. PeerJ 9:e11202 DOI 10.7717/peerj.11202.
Schein, J.P., Poole, J.C., Malinowski, B.L., Schmidt, R.W., and Rooney, L.A., 2019. Reopening the Mother’s Day Quarry (Jurassic Morrison Formation, Montana) is Yielding New Information. Geological Society of America, Annual Meeting, Abstracts with Programs.
Schwarzhans, W., Beckett, H., Schein, J., and Friedman, M., 2018. Computed tomography scanning as a tool for linking the skeletal and otolith-based fossil records of teleost fishes. Palaeontology, 2018:1-31. PDF
Gane, M. E., H. Maisch, J. P. Schein, Parris, D.C., and E. G. Lauginiger, 2016. Redescription of the Late Cretaceous ammonite Chesapeakiceras nodatum from the Chesapeake and Delaware Canal. Proceedings of the Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia 165(1):9-13. PDF
Anné, J., B. J. Hendrick, and J. P. Schein, 2016. First diagnosis of septic arthritis in a dinosaur. Royal Society Open Science. R. Soc. open sci.3: 160222. PDF
Malinowski, B. L., L. A. Rooney, J. P. Schein, and J. Poole, 2016. A new partial skeleton of Leptoceratops gracilis from the Lance Formation of Wyoming, U.S.A. Journal of vertebrate Paleontology, Program and Abstracts, 2016.
Lacovara, K., M. C. Lamanna, L. Ibiricu, J. Poole, E. Schroeter, P. Ullmann, K. Voegele, Z. Boles, A. Carter, E. Fowler, V. Egerton, A. Moyer, C. Coughenour, J. P. Schein, J. Harris, R. Martínez, and F. Novas, 2014. A Gigantic, Exceptionally Complete Titanosaurian Sauropod Dinosaur from Southern Patagonia, Argentina. Scientific Reports 4:6196. PDF
Schein, J. P., and R. D. Lewis, 2001. The relationship between living echinoid populations and their skeletal remains in the sea-floor sediment, San Salvador, Bahamas. Proceedings of the Tenth Symposium on the Geology of the Bahamas and other Carbonate Regions, June 8 – 12, 2000. Bahamian Field Station, San Salvador, Bahamas, p. 163-172.

See Jason's Curriculum Vitae for a complete publication list.

Teaching Experience

Jason has extensive experience with natural history education. He was a Teaching Assistant and Adjunct Professor of numerous geology, paleontology, and general science courses at both Auburn and Drexel universities. He also was the lead educator for the Bureau of Natural History at the New Jersey State Museum from 2007 through 2017, creating and developing natural-history educational programming for children and adults of all ages and backgrounds. Jason is also invested in science outreach and public engagement, often leading talks and workshops with teachers, scientists, and the general public on a wide variety of topics.

In His Own Words

“Paleontology and natural history are my passions, but they aren't my only passions. When I’m not working, you can usually find me outdoors: hunting, fishing, camping, canoeing, hiking, gardening, and just learning from nature. But you’ll always find me with my family - if not in nature, then coaching baseball, picking apples, or watching Auburn football - War Eagle!”