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First Day

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June 01, 2023

Today was my first day and I was given a tour of the Jurassic National Monument and the Cleveland Lloyd dinosaur quarry. Here are some of the things I saw.

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Thagomizer

September 13, 2023

Just something silly I thought about and wanted to share. One of the most famous species of Dinosaurs is the herbivore Stegosaurus. And probably the most iconic characteristic of this species of Dinosaur is the collection of spikes on the end of its tail. This collection of spikes is called a Thagomizer, which is a pretty cool sounding name for a body part, but whats funny is where this term came from. The word "Thagomizer" was not originally a scientific term. But, instead, came from (of all things) a The Far Side comic strip. Comic author Gary Larson completely made up the word "Thagomizer". But it was used by an actual paleontologist named Kenneth Carpenter when describing a Stegosaurus fossil during the Society of Vertebrate Paleontology conference of 1993. The term stuck, and has since become an informal anatomical term that has been used by museums, monuments, documentaries, and even scientific research papers. The more you know I guess. :)

Check out the view

June 04, 2023

Walked along the Raptor Peak hiking trail at the monument today. Was not disappointing by the view.

Look what I did today

June 05, 2023

Today was my first day working as a volunteer for the Prehistoric Museum of Price Utah, which is a part of my internship. I helped begin the process of removing the protective jacket from a fossilized femur of a Camarasaurus (one of the long-necked Sauropod Dinosaurs). Once it has gone through the preparation process, this fossil will be displayed at the Jurassic National Monument. Protective jackets are used to keep a fossil intact when it is being transported from the field to a lab. They're made of burlap and plaster that is so hard it can only be removed with power tools. And the process of removing these jackets throws ups so much dust that protective masks are required. I'll be helping the museum with this and possibly other projects every Monday throughout my internship.