BLM Projects

 With my internship with the Bureau of Land Management and ACE coming to an end I thought I would share with you guys some of the projects I've been working on over the summer.

These are all PowerPoint slides that will hopefully wind up as posters that will be hung up at the Jurassic National Monument visitor center.

These first three are a kind of diagram called a cladogram. Cladograms are basically "Family Trees", but for different species. They show us how individual species are related to each other, and where the division between the two groups happened (biologically speaking).

I made three different cladograms. This first one was made in the standard style of a cladogram, and it is made up of all the different dinosaur species found at the Cleveland-Llyod Dinosaur Quarry where I worked over the summer, as well as a few well known Dinosaur species.

This second cladogram was made in a style that emphasizes simplicity above all else. It was made to be the cladogram that the average member of the public would be able to understand and follow the easiest. And it is made up almost entirely of Dinosaur species that are found at the quarry.

This third cladogram is also made in the standard cladogram style, and it also includes the Dinosaur species found at the quarry. But it is instead primarily made up of various well known Dinosaur species and some of their relatives. This is probably the cladogram that would be most difficult for the average individual to understand due to just how much information is packed into it.

These next slides were meant to form posters that would answer the question: "What is a Dinosaur?" After all, not ever ancient reptile found in the fossil record is a Dinosaur. These slides list and explain the various physical features that scientists use to determine if a newly found prehistoric species is a true Dinosaur, or a member of the more primitive reptile species that were alive at the time.

These first two slides were meant to be the more "adult" version of this project. For they list more specific features that can't be easily explained with pictures alone. But instead require more text in order to properly explain. Which, consequently, means more reading.

The second two slides here were meant to be the more "child friendly" version of this project. For it instead lists features that are more generic, and thus can be more easily explained with multiple pictures and less text. These slides were meant to ultimately wind up in the Junior Ranger packet that we pass out at the monument.

Now my internship at the BLM has come to an end at this point, and while the slides themselves are mostly complete, they haven't gone through any kind of proofreading yet. So I can't say for certain what the ultimate fate of these slides will be. But I did pass them along to my supervisor and coworkers, and they were planning on looking over them sometime in the future. So hopefully my work will be featured at the Jurassic National Monument some time in the future.