Blog 24: Last Presentation Reflection

I would like to thank everyone who has helped me with my project. All the paleontologists I've met, my parents and other family members who have always pushed me to be at my best, and most of all to the senior team who pushed me out of my comfort zone with this project and in turn allowed me experience so many amazing things and to meet so many amazing and kind new people. Thank you very much!

(1) Positive Statement

What are you most proud of in your block presentation and/or your senior project? Why?

- In terms of my presentation, I'm very proud of the set up that I had for the room and of how well I was able to walk around the classroom and just overall be interactive with my audience. The reason why I'm proud of this is because in my previous lesson presentations I had an issue with sticking behind the teachers desk, which limited how interactive I could be with my audience and I was also proud of my set up because it helped me to continually be more interactive throughout my presentation. I'm also very proud of the second independent component and mentorship that I had for my overall project because both allowed me to connect experts in the field and to widen my knowledge of what a paleontologist really does.

(2) Questions to Consider

a.     What assessment would you give yourself on your block presentation?  Use the component contract to defend that assessment.

- I would self evaluate that my final presentation deserves an AE. For one, I went above and beyond in my creative set up of the room I presented and not only did that set up set an atmosphere for my presentation, it also allowed me to continually be more interactive with my audience and to keep them invested in my presentation. I also related the props in my set up to what I was presenting and I think I went above and beyond with that just by having a sheer amount of props that I both brought and used. Also, I think my presentation was above average in how it kept my audience invested because I was using the pictures on my slideshow to demonstrate the majority of the points I was making with my presentation. Additionally, I think I deserve an AE on my final presentation because of how well I had my presentation memorized, since my presentation only had short bullets and not long sentences. That happened because of how well practiced I must have seemed to my audience. For all the reasons above, I think I deserve an AE for my presentation.

b.     What assessment would you give yourself on your overall senior project? Use the component contract to defend that assessment.

- Overall, I think I deserve an AE on my senior project because on a vast majority of the components I've gone above what the contract called for. For example, my independent component 2  was around 70 hours. Also, my first independent component I actually traveled. Also, I went above and beyond with mentorship because even though I didn't surpass the service learning hours I think its what I had to do to earn those hours that makes that above and beyond. For example, after my mentor got his new job he and I had to put a great amount of effort into organizing when we'd meet each other and so I think in that sense I've went above and beyond for that. Also, I kept up to date with all the more smaller parts of my project like the notebook, where I took notes in color, and my blog, where I'm extremely thorough in my answers to questions like this one.

(3) What worked for you in your senior project?

- My independent components, research, blog, and my mentorship went notably well for me in my senior project.

(4) (What didn't work) If you had a time machine, what would you have done differently to improve your senior project?

- If I had a time machine, I'd try to improve upon my previous lesson presentations and gotten more mentorship hours and I would've also done more with my second independent component.

(5) Finding Value

How has the senior project been helpful to you in your future endeavors?   Be specific and use examples.

- One of the major issues with paleontology today has been the fact that jobs in paleontology are few and far between and that the funding for research is very rare in world that increasingly doesn't want to care for abstract fields like paleontology. I think my project has helped to prepare me for future difficulties in building up my career because throughout my project I've been introduced to many renowned experts in paleontology. My project has allowed me to network with these amazing and very kind people and I think they'd be a great source of wisdom and knowledge for me in the future and that this knowledge is going to get me through the hard times that are going to be present for me. I've also gotten to know an amazing dinosaur artist named Brian Engh and a paleontologist known as Dr. Mathew Wedel who both are renowned for their illustrative work of dinosaurs and I think they will be essential to my honing of my sculptor skills to reconstruct ancient life.

Blog 23: Exit Interview Prep

There's nothing quite like a funny meme to unnerve me before an interview. That poor Tyrannosaurus rex it was so close, yet so far.

(1) What is your essential question, and what are your answers?  What is your best answer and why?

My essential question is "How can a paleontologist best reconstruct the life of a prehistoric creature" and my answers to this question are that a paleontologist can analyze the context a fossilized creature was found in, analyze the fossils associated with that creature, or use the comparative method and the creature's phylogenetic context to reconstruct aspects of that prehistoric creature that wouldn't normally be known. 

As for the best answer to this question, there isn't a best answer. each of the answers that I stated before have their limitations as to what type of information they can reveal about an ancient creature and it would be very ignorant for a paleontologist to stick to only one of these answers. In fact, I would argue that the best way for a paleontologist to reconstruct the life of a prehistoric creature is to take up a holistic approach to paleontology and use all of the answers I have and to use the other methods that I didn't include as answers like evodevo, or isotope analysis. There are so many approaches that are leading to fascinating discoveries in paleontology. I think that this is the best answer to my question because the scientific method calls for hypotheses to be tested repeatedly until so much evidence is built up either for them or against them that it becomes hard to deny them. This means that by using different approaches towards reconstructing the life of a prehistoric creature, paleontologists can use that mountain of evidence to either contradict or support that reconstruction of that creature. 

(2) What process did you take to arrive at this answer?

At first, I was going to lean towards my second answer, because fossils provide very indisputable evidence for the reconstruction of a prehistoric creature, because they are actual physical remnants of that creature. However, I began to lean towards my current answer when I started to notice how interwoven each of my three answers were. If I wanted to get as much information about the context a fossilized creature is found in, there would most likely be the fossils of other creatures that would need to be analyzed in order to get detailed information. Also, if I want to compare a fossil to another fossil or the bone of a modern day animal, I still need to analyze that fossil to get the information I need to compare it to another animal's bone. This interconnectedness between all my answers revealed to me that a paleontologist would have their view of the ancient world severely limited if they didn't use any and every type of analysis possible to squeeze as much information as possible from the remnants of ancient creatures.

(3) What problems did you face?  How did you resolve them?

While I was researching for this project I had many issues trying to come up with reputable sources of information for my topic and in addition to that I was having a hard time deciding what the focus of my project should be. I was able to resolve my research problem by being introduced to Cal Poly Pomona's amazing online database, which helped me a lot. With this influx of detailed studies, I began to be pushed towards reconstruction. The final key to the puzzle for me from there was finding this really cool article that I unfortunately didn't save, that talked about how museum exhibits are supposed to teach their viewers a story and to fill them with awe. After that and some help from my mentor Eric Scott, Mr. Rivas, and Mrs. Ortega, I arrived to my EQ, which gave me the direction that I desperately craved. 

(4) What are the two most significant sources you used to answer your essential question and why?

One significant source was the Cal Poly database because many of the sources I have came from their database and all of those sources added to my understanding of what a paleontologist does by showing me the outcome of their hard work. The other significant source for me was my interviews with my mentor, Dr. Stuart Sumida, Dr. Andrew Farke, and Dr. Mathew Wedel. These accomplished scientists and absolute role models were part of the reason why I began seeing how my answers to my essential question were interwoven with each other and they all gave me insight as to how an accomplished paleontologist should go about reconstructing the ancient world.

Blog 22: Independent Component 2

This is Alli the Allosaurus. Her model is based on specimen UUVP 6000. I'd like to give credit to the Paleo-Artist Scott Hartman for the skeletal drawing that he had posted on the internet that made this reconstruction possible. In the background, you can see my "Paleontological Workstation."

LITERAL:
(a) I, Santiago Hernandez, affirm that I completed my independent component which represents 70 hours of work.

(b)

Works Cited

Hartman, Scott. “Allosaurus fragilis UUVP 6000” Photograph. deviantart. Deviantart, n.d. Web. 13 Feb. 2016.

Madsen, James H. Jr. “Allosaurus fragilis: A Revised Osteology” Utah Geological Survey 109 (1976, reprinted - 1993): 1-163. Web. 14 Feb. 2016.
Ultimate Paper Mache. "New Paper Mache Clay Recipe." Online video clip. YouTube. YouTube, 10 Dec. 2009. Web. 10 Apr. 2016. < link >
Ultimate Paper Mache. "Paper Mache Clay Update Video." Online video clip. YouTube. YouTube, 5 Mar. 2012. Web. 10 Apr. 2016. < link >

(c) At this time, my Independent Component  #2 hours log has been updated.

(d) Explain what you completed.   

- Using measurements from reliable sources of information, I have created to the best of my ability a reconstruction of what the dinosaur Allosaurus fragilis would’ve looked like in life. This model was based on the real life measurement of fossils from the Allosaurus specimen UUVP 6000 and the composite skeleton found at the Raymond M Alf Museum

(e) Defend your work and explain the component's significance and how it demonstrates 30 hours of work.   Provide evidence (photos, transcript, art work, videos, etc) of the 30 hours of work.   

- Originally, I had planned on creating a sort of exhibit type display along with my reconstruction of Allosaurus fragilis, but unfortunately I couldn't find enough time to do anything else other than the physical reconstruction of Allosaurus. My essential question asks this: "How can a paleontologist best reconstruct the life of a prehistoric creature?" A large part of the life of many complex organisms, such as us humans, is how they look like. The appearance of an animal affects how it mates, how easily it is spotted by possible predators or prey, etc. To put it simply my independent component is significant because it has taken me on a journey that helps me see what its like when a paleontologist conducts research to write a paper and puts me in the shoes of paleontologists who are tasked with reconstructing the way dinosaurs looked. My component has also shown me how much is left to learn in the field of paleontologist, because as of far determining what color dinosaurs were as well as where as where they had fat or any excess skin is there's no fossil evidence or technology that can tell paleontologists either of those things and more. Additionally, this component has in many ways allowed me to explore all of my answers to my EQ. I had to make a semi-educated guess at what color Allosaurus was by taking into account the fact that Jurassic North America was dominated by forest habitat interrupted by clearings, analyze fossils to find the general shape and size of Allosaurus, and use its phylogenetic context and the comparative method to make the best attempt I was capable of at reconstructing the soft tissues (muscles, feathers, etc.) of Allosaurus.

- My independent component is evident of 70 hours of work because a lot of research and preparation went into putting my Allosaurus fragilis together. The process by which I arrived to my finished product is as follows:

First, I began by frantically looking through the internet for any measurements on Allosaurus and eventually I found a skeletal and muscular drawing by Paleo-Artist Scott Hartman. That drawing then gave me an Allosaurus to search for and I eventually found a scientific study done by paleontologist Dr. James H. Madsen Jr. The skeletal drawing that I based my model is shown below.

Once I had plundered both the scientific study and this drawing for all the measurements they could give me, which by the way took quite a long time since I had to record each measurement and make sure I was measuring in parallel lines. I then printed out an enlarged version of the above scale drawing and cut it out and taped each piece together.

This picture shows the enlarged version of the skeletal drawing that I made with Microsoft Word before I had put it together. This print out would serve as the basis by which I gave my Allosaurus its shape.

With the paper version of my Allosaurus created, I set out to cut out a piece of foam board so that I would have something solid to use as a base to give my Allosaurus shape. I couldn't fit the entire printout onto one foam board so I also had to tape the pieces of board together. A picture of me tracing the printout on a piece of foam board is provided below along with pictures of the pieces of foam board I cut out from that trace.

I had to trace the entire skeletal printout onto the foam board.

This is pretty much how all the pieces of foam I cut out for the main body looked like.

After tracing the drawing onto the foam board I had to cut out each piece. 

A side by side comparison of my completed foam cut and the printout. The original printout will be provided to Mr. Rivas.

Just like the body print out, I had to cut out some pieces of foam for several other smaller parts of the body, including another copy of the skull so that I could have and easier time making it 3D.

In addition to cutting out separate pieces of foam for the skull, I had to cut copies of the teeth, claws, ribs, legs, arms, and hands.

After the foam cutting was over with, I had to move on to creating the teeth that were going to be put onto my Allosaurus. For each little tooth, I had cut out a tiny piece of foam and label that. Also, I cut out pieces of foam where I could stick the teeth on so they can dry without being left on top of a surface. Each tooth was painstakingly covered with air dry clay and sculpted so that they would look like the steak knives they're described as looking like. 

With fingers wet (wet fingers are best for sculpting), I began smoothing out the surface of the clay so that it could resemble the tooth of 

A finished tooth under the scrutiny of my dinosaur crazed mind.

After doing the teeth, I was presented with the question of how I was going to make my Allosaurus's hands. Most of that was just testing out different pieces of wire, then scrapping the idea. Eventually I thought I'd give clay a try, but I noticed how heavy it was and figured that since I would be attaching the hand to the main body by tape that it was too heavy. I will be giving that hand as proof of this, because I had forgotten to take a picture of this process since I was so enveloped in my thoughts.

With all the foam and tiny parts done it was time to make the PVC frame that would support my Allosaurus! Because the day before I had traveled to the Raymond M Alf Museum to take width measurements of an Allosaurus they had on display, I had all the final measurements I needed to put Alli the Allosaurus together. I had made a diagram of how I was going to layout the pipes and using that diagram as a guide I started cutting out pieces of PVC pipe out and sticking them together with a glue that's made for keeping them together. While gluing them I was securing them onto my foam cut out of my Allosaurus using zip ties .This PVC system made it possible for Alli to stand on her own.

With this super nifty adhesive, I was able to make sure that my PVC frame was held together tightly.

In this picture, I am tying down the PVC frame to my foam cut outs. Notice how the leg is secured.

Here's a picture of me drilling a hole into the PVC so that I could get a better place to tie the zip tie to. To the left is my baby sister who is helping me by holding up Alli while I drill.

Alli finally stands proudly!!!

Now that the frame was completed, I needed to give Alli her shape and I decided to do that by stuffing her with crumbled pieces of newspaper and keeping that newspaper in place by wrapping it in masking tape. The process was pretty boring, but it did make me actively use my imagination because I knew little about the anatomy of muscles. 

As you can see here, the newspaper was used give Alli a general shape, but the tape is used to compress it and smooth out the shape. However, even with the tape the surface of Alli was rough so I needed a top layer that was smoother.

Again for this step of the process of making Alli, I didn't take much pictures, but the YouTube video links provided in the Works cited portion of this blog post show generally what the process of giving Alli her "skin" was like. The substance I used was called paper mache clay and it dries super hard and it was pretty easy to make. Using a join compound spreader that my dad lent me I spread this stuff all around Alli and then used plastic wrapping, like for food, to make the surface smoother with finger being pressed up against the plastic. 

These are some of the materials I used to make the paper mache clay.

In this picture, I am adding the finishing touches to the coat of paper mache clay that Alli has on her underside. It was hard to get to the back of her arms with the spreader so I was using wet fingers since they make sculpting so much easier.

The finished product of Alli's new coat of paper mache clay. I used some of it to sculpt her decorative horns in and to make a socket for her eyeballs.

Finally, Alli just needed a paint job and she would be finished. However, I had some problems with what colors should I put on her. Should I make her vibrantly colored like her avian descendants the birds, or should I be conservative with her color? In the end, what color dinosaurs were is the kind of thing paleontologists just don't know yet, so really any interpretation I make can be right. So I decided to go with a hybrid of the two approaches. I figured that female birds today are pretty dull colored, but some still have some sort of coloring, so I decided to make Alli's main coat of color a reddish brown and to give her bright green polka dots. For Alli's ornamental horns, I figured that they were probably used as a signal to say that "Hey I'm horny and ready to make babies if you're just the right male!" In that case, I figured that giving her some nice streaks of bright red would be great so she could advertise that fact. 

Here, I'm giving Alli her nice red streaks that I've mapped with pencil. The bright red would have easily advertised her sexual maturity and her youthful vigor.

Alli's first round of painting is done. The day after I finished her painting up. If you are interested, in seeing the finished product come to Mr. Rivas's room to see her in her Jurassic glory.

That sums up the process by which I reconstructed Alli the Allosaurus.

(f)How did the component help you answer your EQ? Please include specific examples to illustrate how it helped. 

- This component helped me see the value in my second and third answer to my EQ. The fossil data that I did find while I was researching for this project was vital in helping me reconstruct Alli. One example of that comes from the scientific study I found, Dr. Madsen's detailed pictures of specimen UUVP 6000 provided me with the next best thing to a fossil to get detailed information on the size and proportions of Alli's body. Another example of this was my trip to the Raymond M Alf Museum, their I used their mounted Allosaurus skeleton to get a feel of what Alli should look like in 3D and to measure it for her width. In terms of my answer three, this component helped me see the use in using both the comparative method and phylogenetic relationships. While I was stuffing Alli, I was having a hard to think of what to make her legs look like so I looked at the only other animal I had readily available that walks with its legs underneath it: humans. By observing the way my own legs look like and finding pictures of bird legs I gained some sort of idea of what Alli's legs might have looked like. I was also able to decide with a degree of certainty that Alli had feathers because of how closely related her branch of the Theropod family was to the part of that has raptors, Tyrannosaurs, and other feathered meat eaters and by finding out that one member of the Megaraptoa branch of the greater Allosaur family of Theropods had feathers. Indeed, this component taught me just how important it is to have fossils when reconstructing a prehistoric creature and how insightful the comparative method and phylogenetic relationships can be. 

Blog 21: Fourth Interview Reflection

Dr. Andrew Farke is a world renowned paleontologist that specializes in horned dinosaurs. He is the curator of paleontology at the Raymond M Alf Museum and has actually been mentioned in quite a few of the sources that I have used as sources for my project. 

1. What is the most important thing I learned from the interview?  

- The most important thing this interview has taught is that collaboration with different paleontologists can really help a paleontologist fill in missing gaps in their knowledge, which can help make a better restoration of the life of a prehistoric creature. Also, collaboration with a paleoartist who can bring your ideas to life is very important in communicating you view, as a paleontologist, of the ancient world.

2.  How will what I learned affect my final lesson?

- I think that I'm going to add a surprise twist at the conclusion of my presentation and say something along the lines of there's multiple answers to my question and each is as valid and as telling as the next one, but if one was to be chosen then collaboration with different peers with different specialties is the most important thing a paleontologist can do to make a the best rendition of a prehistoric creature's life.

Listen to my interview here.

Blog 20: Fourth Interview Questions

The picture above is that of a sauropod (long-neck) known as Brachiosaurus. Brachiosaurus was actually the second dinosaur to be seen by viewers of the film Jurassic Park. The expert I want to interview, Dr. Mathew Wedel, is a foremost expert in this kind of dinosaur.

1.  Who do you plan to interview?  What is this person's area of expertise?

- I plan on interviewing Dr. Mathew Wedel, who is a very well respected paleontologist that specializes in sauropod dinosaurs (long-necks). 

2.  Post 20 open-ended questions you want to ask an expert in the field concerning your senior project. Your focus should be finding answers to your EQ.

1.) In your experience, what has helped you the most with reconstructing the appearance of sauropods?
2.) What were sauropods like in real life? How do you know all of that?
3.) When you reconstruct a sauropod's coloration, what do you normally use to justify your rendition?
4.) Did sauropods have feathers? How do you know this? 
5.) How were sauropod's able to mate? What evidence is there to support what you are saying?
6.) What does the Sauropod's phylogenetic relationship with Theropods indicate about them?
7.)  Did sauropods display to possible mates? What evidence is there to back that up?
8.) What purpose did the necks of sauropod's serve? What kind of evidence supports that view?
9.) Are there any signs of developmental change within young sauropods from fossilized remains?
10.) Are there any other paleontologists that disagree with your views on sauropods? What evidence have they used?
11.) In your experience, how valuable are fossils when trying to reconstruct the life of sauropods? 
12.) What aspects of a creature's life do fossils reveal, other than their appearance?
13.) Do specific types of fossils reveal more information than others?
14.) Is the context a fossil is found valuable? How so?
15.) What sort of information has the context of fossils you've found revealed about sauropods?
16.) What role does phylogenetic context play in your work? What kind of information does it give you?
17.) Has comparative anatomy aided you in your work with sauropods? What exactly has it revealed about them?
18.) How can phylogenetic context and comparative anatomy be used in conjunction with each other? Have you used this in your work?
19.) How effective is collaboration with other scientists in your work?
20.) How can a paleontologist best reconstruct the life of a prehistoric creature?

Blog 19: Third Answer

The picture above shows a phylogenetic tree which I am using in my second independent component as a justification for feathers. The dinosaur I am reconstructing is called Allosaurus and it belongs to the grouping called Allosauridae, which is very closely related to a broader group of theropods called Coelursauria where a lot of theropods have been found to have feathers. 

EQ:

How can a paleontologist best reconstruct the life of a prehistoric creature?

Answer #3 (Write in a complete sentence like a thesis statement):

A paleontologist can effectively reconstruct the life of a prehistoric creature by using both phylogenetic context and the comparative method in conjunction with each other or separately.

3 details to support the answer:

- When a creature's phylogenetic context is used by paleontologists, it looks at what other animals, extinct or alive, are closely related to the subject species and what that relationship might reveal about things like appearance, behavior, and diet.

- When a paleontologist uses the comparative method, they are typically looking at the fossilized bones of creatures and comparing them with like creatures and using comparison to postulate with some level of certainty where  muscles were attached or even what color feather-like structures had. 

- Paleontologists that use a creature's phylogenetic context to find closely related species with whom to use the comparative method on can produce very reliable results and provide more information about an ancient creature's life.

The research source(s) to support your details and answer:

- "Evidence for Avian Intrathoracic Air Sacs in a New Predatory Dinosaur from Argentina." This source actually came from the research I was conducting for my Independent Component 2, it reports about how certain features on a species of dinosaur suggest that it may have had the air sacs that birds today use to breath much more efficiently than mammals. The specific group of dinosaurs that this was found on is very closely related to the dinosaur I will be reconstructing, called Allosaurus, which suggests that there is a very real possibility that this anatomical feature was present in the group that contains Allosaurus. This phylogenetic context provides a strong connection between Allosaurus and more bird-like features like primitive feathering.

- "Extreme Dinosaurs" This source talks about a recent discovery of a predator larger than Tyrannosaurus rex, but uses a group of dinosaurs closely related to Tyrannosaurus as a phylogenetic context to justify pack hunting behavior.

- "Flexibility Along the Neck of the Ostrich (Struthio Camelus) and Consequences for the Reconstruction of Dinosaurs with Extreme Neck Length" This source uses the comparative method to compare fossils of long-necked dinosaurs, sauropods, with modern Ostriches, who have very long necks. Through this analysis paleontologists determined positions that would've been more realistically achievable for sauropod neck, thus helping to reconstruct the animal's life.

Concluding Sentence:

Phylogenetic context and the comparative method while being useful on their own for the reconstruction of prehistoric life can be combined to get very reliable and realistic information about the way ancient creatures both behaved and looked like.

Blog 17: Interview 3 Reflection

For this interview, I interviewed Dr. Stuart Sumida from CSU San Bernardino. His career is a very diverse one. He works with animators to accurately represent animals, he's a paleontologist, and he teaches comparative anatomy at CSUSB. This combination made him a very interesting interviewee and a great source of information for my project.

1. What is the most important thing I learned from the interview?  

- The most important thing, I think, that I learned is that the best way for a paleontologist to reconstruct the life of a prehistoric creature is by collaborating with other paleontologists with different specialties. I learned that through collaboration with different specialties a large amount of information can be uncovered about an ancient creature's life.

2.  How has your approach to interviewing changed over the course of your senior project?

- I think my questions have become better as my senior project progressed. Also, I think that my ability to guide the interview has improved throughout my project.

To access my interview please click here.