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.

Blog 18: Answer 2

The skull depicted above is that of a young Triceratops. What the shape of this skull showed Dr. John Horner, the paleontologist that discovered skulls like it, was that the dinosaur Triceratops went through different skull shapes as it grew older. 

1.  What is your EQ?

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

2.  What is your first answer? (In complete thesis statement format)

- Analysis of the context in which a fossil is found can reveal a significant amount of information about its life.

3.  What is your second answer? (In complete thesis statement format)

- The physical structure of a fossil can allow a paleontologist to gather much information about an ancient creature's life.

4.  List three reasons your answer is true with a real-world application for each.

1. The actual size of a fossil can give a paleontologist an idea of what an organism's size and shape were like when it was alive. An example of this is how for my second independent component I'm searching through the internet for measurements of Allosaurus fragilis so that I can accurately depict its size and shape.
2. Some fossils have signs of what is called paleopathology where there are bumps or structures on the bone that indicate illness or injuries. One of the experiences I had at mentorship with my mentor, Dr. Eric Scott, was the pathological timber wolf femur that he showed us, which told us that the timber wolf had its leg torn off.
3. Sometimes fossils can have signs of predation and the marks that leaves behind can be found. An example of this comes from one of the sources that I cited in my working bibliography about a documentary about a debate between paleontologists about whether or not Tyrannosaurus rex was a predator or scavenger. Paleontologists that were for the idea of T. Rex being a predator found a skeleton of a plant-eater that had a tooth mark of a Tyrannosaurus.

5.  What printed source best supports your answer?

- The best printed source I have that supports my answer is the study that my mentor wrote about the pathological timber wolf femur.

6.  What other source supports your answer?

- Another source that supports my answer is the documentary where Dr. John Horner uses Triceratops frills to show that there was ontogeny (physical progression from childhood to adulthood) in the fossil record.

7.  Tie this together with a  concluding thought.

- The physical structure of a fossil can tell a paleontologist very vital information about an ancient creature's life and it can provide ample evidence that can be used to infer information about appearance, anatomy, etc.

Blog 16: Independent Component 2 Approval

This dinosaur here is Allosaurus and it will be the dinosaur that i want to reconstruct for my second independent component.

1.  Describe in detail what you plan to do for your 30 hours.

- For my second independent component, I would like to make a museum-style exhibit of a dinosaur called Allosaurus maximus (that's the scientific name, but in normal speak just call it Allosaurus). I want to make an updated and scientifically accurate reconstruction of Allosaurus's appearance and to provide a representation of one aspect of an Allosaur's life. Right now my idea, is that using the exhibit I will represent an Allosaur's parental behavior. I will also be adorning the exhibit with foliage that would be natural to an Allosaur's habitat.

2.  Discuss how or what you will do to meet the expectation of showing 30 hours of evidence.

- I will take photographs of my construction process, provide research justifying my reconstruction, and turn in a one page placard detailing reasoning for why I reconstructed Allosaurus the way I did.

3.  Explain how this component will help you explore your topic in more depth.

- Originally, my mentor suggested this project to me as a possible mentorship activity during my first interview with him and later on I visited the Raymond M Alf Museum, which had an exhibit of Allosaurus and a computer simulator showing a reconstruction of it. I didn't agree with how lizard-like the museum made Allosaurus out to be and so this independent component will also be a sort of scientific peer check of another paleontologist's rendition of this animal. My project EQ is: How can a paleontologist best reconstruct the life of a prehistoric creature. This idea allows me to reconstruct a few aspects of a prehistoric creature's life: its appearance, environmental setting, and parental behavior. I will have to explore a few techniques used by paleontologists in order to accomplish this reconstruction and so in that sense I will be able to further explore my topic. I've seen many TV documentaries on paleontology where paleontologists use various methods to uncover the lives of different prehistoric creatures, so I can look at those methods along with others from my research to help me revise the answers that I've already come up with and to possibly replace either of them if its better.

Findings from Gem-O-Rama and Great Trona Pinnacle Scenery

Here are a few of the crystals I found during my trip to Trona and some of the pictures I took from my perspective while hiking through the Trona Pinnacles.

Independent Component 1

Literal
a. I, Santiago Hernandez, affirm that I completed my independent component which represents 30 hours of work. 

b. "The Trona Pinnacles." Ridgecrest Field Office. US Department of the Interior: Bureau of Land Management, 8 Oct. 2014. Web. 4 Feb. 2016.

State of California Department of Conservation. Jennings, Charles W., John L. Burnett, Bennie W. Troxel. Geologic Atlas of California - Trona Sheet. Map. 1:250,000. 1962. Web. 4 Feb. 2016.

Trona Pinnacles. Trona: Searles Lake Gem & Mineral Society, 2015. Print.

d. I participated in the "Mud trip" and "Pink Halite" trips made available in Trona, California where I collected crystals and prospected for fossils and hiked in the Trona Pinnacles. I later cleaned the Hanksite crystals that I collected from the Mud trip at home and then wrote an essay detailing the probability of their being fossils at the Trona Pinnacles and detailing the context of such fossils.

Interpretive

Normally when a Paleontologist prospects for fossils they have to use a tool like a pickaxe to extract the fossils from the surrounding matter.

Like a paleontologist, I had to keep a sharp eye out to discern a crystal from a worthless hunk of mud and rock. The picture above shows me holding the largest Hanksite cluster that I found.

Just the same as the mud trip, I had to keep an eye out for salt crystals in this brine pool. However, sometimes paleontologists just stumble upon fossils and similarly with the Pink Halite trip I had to let my fingers stumble upon the crystals.

Underneath the crystals I have on display is the ledge of salt where the Pink Halite crystals were more abundant. Sometimes paleontologists just find areas that are rich in fossils.

The point of my participation in the Mud and Pink Halite Trips of Trona's annual Gem-O-Rama was to simulate the work of a paleontologist because during these trips I had keep a close a eye to discern crystals from worthless chunks of salt or rocks. A paleontologist does this on a normal basis when they prospect for fossils.

Since all of my pictures of my hike on the Trona Pinnacles are from my point of view, this picture is what it was liked to watch over a ridge on one of the taller Pinnacles. The earth here was noticeably coarse and pebbly.

In this picture, it is easy to notice the vast distance in between different Pinnacles and it is also easy to see that earth around this Pinnacle is very pebbly.

During the hike, I found this tiny fragment of a bone, but according to my mentor it was just "last weeks dinner" and not a fossil. This shows how observant I had to be to even find anything like this among the rocks.

The crystals that I collected during Gem-O-Rama were created from the minerals deposited by an ancient lake called Searles Lake. The Trona Pinnacles were also a product of this lake, so I hiked and prospected for fossils in them as a further simulation of the work of a paleontologist. 

Here I am clearing the mud off my Hanksite crystals just as a paleontologist would clean a fossil that is inside a chunk of rock.

After cleaning it in brine, the Hanksite crystals look really nice. This specific specimen has a tinier conjoined twin on its side.

After my trip to Trona, I needed to clean my Hanksite crystals and so this relates to paleontology because paleontologists don't always find fossil fragments, sometimes they have to extract it within a chunk of earth and have to take it to a lab to thoroughly remove all the matrix. The Hanksite crystals simulated this because I pretty much had to take them home with some of the mud that I found them in.


The essay I wrote relates to how probable it would be to find fossils at the Trona Pinnacles and the context they. This essay serves to simulate how paleontologists publish papers on any number of topics related to paleontology that add to scientific knowledge. My essay does this by analyzing the sedimentological makeup of the area around the Trona Pinnacles and their formation to reach an understanding of how viable that environment might have been to fossilize a creature.

Applied
Paleontologists largely rely on fossils as pieces of evidence to explain a world long gone. In the case of my independent component, the crystals I collected from Searles Lake are pieces of evidence pointing back to minerals that were once part of a large lake. Also, another foundation of my topic that my independent component helped me understand was fossil formation. Fossils are formed after many years of compression underneath layers of sediments. An example of how my project allowed me to further explore this information is my essay because I had to apply what  I knew about the process of fossilization and use that and other information I've gathered about Searles Lake to synthesize a report on how likely fossils were to form around the Trona PInnacles. However, I think that my independent component helped me most with understanding an answer to my EQ because it showed me that a great way to reconstruct the life of an organism is to find out the context in which it was found. My hike and analysis of the Trona Pinnacles showed me this by showing me that if I did find any fossils near them that I can instantly assume that the creature was at home in an aquatic environment or that it died somewhere that allowed to be washed into the bottom of ancient Searles Lake.

Independent Component #1 Essay

This is one of the larger more impressive ridges of the Trona Pinnacles. Also, I almost got stuck on the really steep hill on the right side of the picture. 

Click here to access my essay on the possibility of their being fossils near the Trona Pinnacles and the context of such fossils. 

Lesson 2 Reflection

I think I will have other events later in life that will merit more nervousness than this presentation.

1.What are you most proud of in your Lesson 2 Presentation and why?

- I’m very proud of the fact that two table groups actually got the correct answer for my activity, because I knew walking in to the presentation that my activity was most likely going to be too complicated to the class so I wasn’t expecting anyone to get the right answer in the allotted amount of time.

2. a.     What assessment would you give yourself on your Lesson 2 Presentation (self-assessment)?

       AE       P          AP       CR       NC

     b.     Explain why you deserve that grade using evidence from the Lesson 2 component contract.

- My lesson 2 deserves an AE because I went above and beyond in the preparation of my activity. Also, I provided interesting and relevant props to both my answer one and EQ in the crystals that were passed around class and the fossils of ancient creatures. Additionally, people liked my brochure because it gave them quite a bit of background information on my topic that taught them more information in addition to what they learned from my presentation.

3. What worked for you in your Lesson 2?

- I really liked how people responded to their receiving of candy during my activity and I also really liked how well people responded to the content on the slide in my presentation about a study conducted by my mentor on a poor three-legged Timber Wolf.

4. What didn't work? If you had a time machine, what would you have done differently to improve your Lesson 2?

- For one, I think I had too much content in my slide show so I would’ve eliminated one of the scientific studies that I cited. Furthermore, I would’ve come up with a much simpler activity that would still be very informational for the audience.

5. What do you think your answer #2 is going to be?

- I have already formed an idea for my answer 2 and that is physical analysis of a fossil can reveal a lot about a prehistoric creature’s appearance and life. This can also be seen in the same study by my mentor that I cited during my presentation.