I am currently a graduate student in the Department of Anthropology at the University of Florida. I specialize in Mesoamerican archaeology and ethnohistory, focusing in particular on the study of the prehispanic Tarascan State. So no, I don't dig up dinosaurs. No archaeologist does. Just people and their stuff.

Academically, I consider myself just as much an Anthropologist as an Archaeologist. Studying state level societies should entail documenting how power manifests itself, what people think of the state and their leaders, how those leaders influence them, and how pervasively the state affects peoples lives and how they interpret their own existence and not simply document site size hierarchies. Obviously this is difficult when accomplished through only down and dirty archaeological means, which is one of the reasons I chose to study the prehispanic Tarascan State. A substantial ethnohistoric record exists in which the Tarascan nobles explained their form of government, their worldview, their culture, and how they all intertwined.