Who are you?
What can I ask about?
What about other sciences?
How long will it take to get an answer?
Who will answer my question?
I asked a question, but never got an answer. What happened?
Can you help me with my homework?
Where can I get more information about you?
How can I contact you?
How can I help out?

Who are you?
We are a group of professional biologists and palaeontologists who have got together to provide this resource. Our group includes university professors, lecturers, professional researchers, doctoral students, museum curators, fossil preparators, science writers and everything in between. We come from, and work around the world - Norway, Argentina, Canada, Ireland, UK, Germany, USA, France, Japan, Australia and many more places. Read our biographies to see what work we do and where we do it.

What can I ask about?
You can ask us pretty much anything about biology and palaeontology. We have people who work on evolution, ecology, spiders, trees, bird, dinosaurs, anatomy, elephants, conservation, viruses, anthropology and many other topics. Some of us work in museums, others in universities or research institutes, and a few are independent workers. In short we have a very wide range of knowledge across the whole of biological systems.

Please keep your questions limited to the science of biology and palaeontology. We won't accept questions on religion, and we don't have the expertise to answer questions on archaeology or biochemistry (though this may change).

What about other sciences?
Well this was set-up by a group of palaeontologists and biologists so that's al we have for now. If this site is a success we would like to use it as a model to build other sites for chemistry, geology, physics etc. but for now, it's just the biological sciences.

How long will it take to get an answer?
Everyone working on this site is doing so for free in their own time so things aren't always as fast as we would like. Generally you will get an answer posted here within a week of you asking us. However if the question you ask us is very difficult, there may be only one person available qualified to answer. If they are away on fieldwork or on holiday then there's not much we can do but wait, so it may take a while.

Who will answer my question?
That really depends on what you ask and who is around. There are quite a few dinosaur experts on here for example, so if you ask us a fairly simple question about dinosaurs, it could be anyone of ten or more people. If it is something about virus evolution, well there are only one or two people here who know much about that, and they might also confer with one of their colleagues. What we can assure you is that the answer you get will be as up to date as possible and reflect the current scientific thinking according to leading experts in the field. If there is a split in opinion we will give you both sides and if we don't know, then we will say that we don't know.

I asked a question, but never got an answer. What happened?
We may have answered your question before for someone else and so you should search for your topic. However, sometimes questions slip through the gaps and we simply forgot to answer them, for which we apologise. Please do wait two or three weeks before you ask again - we may simply be very busy or waiting for an answer from a colleague etc. We do try to answer all our questions as soon as we can. Please be patient.

Finally, there are some questions that lie outside of our areas of knowledge (e.g. archaeology etc.). If it is a genuine biological question that we simply can't answer, then we will post up a short message saying that we don't know.

Can you help me with my homework?
Sorry, but we are not going to do your homework for you. We want you to become interested in science but that means you have to learn some things for yourself. You teachers will always be willing to help you, so you should really ask them.Don’t forget, pretty much all of us studied biology at school and university, so we know what questions you are likely to get in class.

Where can I get more information about you?
There is lots more on us and our research in our biographies. Most of us also have websites about our research hosted at our parent institutions so you may find relevant links there.

How can I contact you?
Please use the Q&A to ask a question and the contact page for feedback, any technical problems with the site or other enquiries.

How can I help out?
We are always looking for more experts to help out so please get in touch with us through the contact page. Our only requirement is that you be an active scientific researcher, or work directly with science communication with professional scientists. Of course you will also do us a great favour if you can tell your friends and neighbours about us, link to us on your homepage and tell local schools about the service.