Connect these dots: Fidel Castro and the Mariel boatlift. The Miami Dolphins and that city’s Little Havana neighborhood. The Everglades, alligators, pythons and a fossilized tooth. Intellectual curiosity. Southern Oregon University. Those are waypoints on the road map of Frank Rodriguez’s life. He is anchored to and guided by them even as he takes a giant step toward the career that, until recently, he would have lacked the audacity to so much as dream about – paleontologist and research scientist.