Meet the Interns

Student Interns are an integral part of the Dinosaur Bone Histology research at the Science Museum of Minnesota. Read these profiles to find out what the've been up to:

Name: Kathleen Dull

WhereÕs she from?: Wenatchee, Washington

Age: 21

College/University: Macalester College

Year: Senior

Major: Psychology

What SheÕs Been Up To:

Kathleen came to the SMM after taking a class called "Dinosaurs" at Macalester College. During her internship, she's been spending most of her time working on development of web-page components aimed at engaging kids in paleontology research.

Name: Christine Wong

WhereÕs she from?: San Francisco, CA

Age: 21

College/University: Macalester College

Year: Senior

Major: Classics/Geology

What SheÕs Been Up To:

Christine began volunteering in the Science Museum of MinnesotaÕs Dinosaurs and Fossil Gallery when she moved to Minnesota for college. After taking Dinosaurs and other geology classes at Macalester, Christine began volunteering behind-the-scences at the SMM, and was instrumental in reorganizing the paleontology collection. During her internship, Christine has been working hard in the paleontology collection, as she helps the team identify bones at the SMM that will be valuable components of the histology research. SheÕs also assisted in the development of the website, and will be responsible for updating the site over the course of her internship.

Name: Edward Schexnayder

WhereÕs he from?: Dallas, TX

Age: 20

College/University: Macalester College

Year: Junior

Major: History/Geology

What HeÕs Been Up To:

Edward began working as a volunteer preparator at the Science Museum of Minnesota during his freshman year at Macalester. He spent months working with microscopes and microfossils from the Judith River Formation of Montana, and then turned to the more time-consuming task of preparing mammals from the White River Formation of South Dakota. During EdwardÕs internship, he scanned images for reproduction on the website, and was responsible for writing and editing website text.

Bone Histology Presentation at SVP

At this year's meeting of the Society of Vertbrate Paleontology Kristi Curry Rogers presented these recent findings.

FROM THE SVP PRESS CONFERENCE
Thursday, Oct. 16, 10:30-11:30 a. m.

Kristi Curry Rogers, Gregory M. Erickson, and Mark Norell

Dinosaurian Life History Strategies, Growth Rates, and Character Evolution: New Insights Garnered from Bone Histology and Developmental Mass Extrapolation.

Did dinosaurs grow in a manner similar to living reptiles, birds, or mammals, or were they unique? Are the extremely rapid growth rates exhibited by modern birds a unique avian innovation, or were they inherited from dinosaurian precursors? Without a living dinosaur to observe, answers to these questions have remained intractable. Recent analyses of bone histology have called into question the longstanding assumption that dinosaurs were just scaled-up reptiles with slow growth rates. More recent work suggested that dinosaurs may have actually grown as fast as living birds, or may have been growing at intermediate rates. Most dinosaur bones are uniquely comprised of tissues with both slow-growing reptilian and rapid-growing avian/mammalian attributes, which complicate determination of growth rates and overall life history strategies.

DINOSAURIAN LIFE HISTORY STRATEGIES, GROWTH RATES, AND CHARACTER EVOLUTION :

NEW INSIGHTS GARNERED FROM BONE HISTOLOGY AND DEVELOPMENTAL MASS EXTRAPOLATION

CURRY ROGERS, K., Science Museum of Minnesota, 120 W. Kellogg Blvd., St. Paul, MN 55102; ERICKSON, G. M., Biological Sciences, Florida State University, Conradi Bldg., Tallahassee, FL 32306; NORELL, M. A., American Museum of Natural History,
New York, New York 10024-5192

Comparisons of whole-body growth rates and life history strategies among extant vertebrates are typically achieved through the comparison of regressions of exponential stage growth standardized to body mass. In order to compare whole-body patterns between Dinosauria and extant taxa, similar quantified data are necessary. The recent merging of traditional bone histological analysis with scaling principles in a method termed Developmental Mass Extrapolation (DME) has provided the requisite tools and data to assess how dinosaurs really grew.