A BUDDING paleontologist has stunned his parents and school friends by passing a university course at an elite Canadian institution at the age of just 12.
Finn McKellar, from Cumbernauld, Lanarkshire, has aced the tough Dino 101 online course at the University of Alberta in Canada, which is primarily set for undergraduate students.
The youngster plans now to take a break from university studies to concentrate on his schoolwork after recently starting first year at Our Lady’s High School.
Finn became fascinated with dinosaurs after watching the 2015 American science fiction adventure film Jurassic World and now he is hoping for a career as a paleontologist.
Finn said: “I haven’t always been into dinosaurs. I got into them after watching Jurassic World. What I like about paleontology is that it is, more or less, a kind of similar world but yet a lot different to what we have today. I just find it fascinating that it once existed.”
Finn started the university undergraduate course at the age of 11 while he was still at primary school after his parents did lots of research to find him something that would get him away from the computer.
He added: “I very much hope for a future in paleontology. I was so interested in the subject that I found the course good fun. I am too young for the course to build towards a qualification but it might help me in the future.
“I generally get my knowledge from most sources and then double check to see if it is right. I do quite a lot of research online.
“My plan now is to take a break for a while to concentrate a bit more on schoolwork.
“One of my friends is just as interested in dinosaurs as I am but my other friend honestly hates them so I try not to bring up the subject in front of him. They both think it is great that I have been doing this course.”
Finn’s father Matthew, a clinical research project manager, and his district nurse mother Andrea, said they were “immensely proud” of their son and were “taken aback” at his level of understanding for someone so young.
The couple, who have two other children Luke, 10, and Lily, seven, said Finn has also amassed a collection of fossils and attends the Kelvingrove young archaeologists’ club in Glasgow.
Matthew said: “Finn really wants to go to university and become a paleontologist. It was my wife who found this online course for him. We were never quite sure if it was too in-depth or too advanced for him but we let him sign up anyway and we let him dip in and out of it.
“There were lots of videos and information by the university professors for Finn to access and it is really interactive but we were a bit surprised when he started to do the quizzes at the end of the course and he was passing them. We were a bit taken aback at his level of understanding. If he was old enough it would count to a university degree in paleontology.”
Finn is also building a website where he intends to raise awareness of the subject of whether dinosaurs were feathered creatures.
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