Earth Sciences – Dedman College of Humanities and Sciences

Tiny Texas dinosaur finally has a name nearly 35 years after discovery in treasure trove of fossils

Dallas Morning News Originally Posted: April 4, 2019 About 120 million years ago, flocks of small dinosaurs bounded from plant to plant in an open floodplain southwest of what is now Fort Worth. They stood on two legs as they foraged for leaves and shoots. The smallest hatchlings were about the length of your hand, while the largest measured 9 feet from head to tail. “They were birdlike and very agile, slender, fast-running dinosaurs,” said Kate Andrzejewski, a postdoctoral fellow at Southern Methodist University and lead author of a highly anticipated new paper in the journal PLOS ONE that describes these creatures for the first time. The dinosaurs, which Andrzejewski and her colleagues named Convolosaurus marri, make up the largest trove of dinosaur fossils ever discovered in Texas. Convolosaurus means “flocking [...]

By Katherine Nickles| 2019-04-04T11:26:34+00:00 April 4th, 2019|Dedman College of Humanities and Sciences, Dedman College Research, Earth Sciences, Faculty News, Graduate News|Comments Off

New Texas Dinosaur Discovery

PLOSE Originally Posted: March 12, 2019 New Texas dinosaur named for ISEM Trustee Ray Marr Kate Andrzejewski, with Dale Winkler and Louis Jacobs of the Roy M. Huffington Department of Earth Sciences have identified Convolosaurus marri from fossils collected at Proctor Lake. READ MORE

By Katherine Nickles| 2019-03-14T07:47:33+00:00 March 13th, 2019|Dedman College of Humanities and Sciences, Dedman College Research, Earth Sciences, Faculty News, Graduate News|Comments Off

Explore the hidden wonders, technology happening right here in Dallas with Science in the City

Dallas Morning News Originally Posted: March 8, 2019 This is an excerpt from a Dallas Morning News article. Read the full article here. Register for Science in the City here. How to listen for earthquakes, feel the vibrations (and sturdiness) of bridges, and even make better bionic legs Did you know you can “listen” for earthquakes? No, it’s more than putting your ear to the ground to see if one is coming. Seismologists study seismic waves to see how strong an earthquake is and pinpoint its epicenter. They can examine these waves to detect a number of things, including nuclear explosions. At SMU’s Science in the City, you can learn how seismologists from SMU do just that. You’ll also get a chance to learn how the school’s engineers [...]

By Katherine Nickles| 2019-03-08T09:53:27+00:00 March 8th, 2019|Dedman College of Humanities and Sciences, Dedman College Research, Earth Sciences|Comments Off

Today, March 5: SMU Giving Day

One day. For 24 hours on March 5, the entire SMU community will come together to give back and celebrate the causes we care about – supporting students, improving cities, educating teachers, fighting for justice, fueling champions – together, the possibilities are endless. Please consider supporting a Dedman College cause: Dedman College Scholars Dean’s Research Council SMU Human Rights SMU Fund for Dedman College Data Hackathon Challenges: Dean’s Research Council Match Gifts made to the Dedman College Dean’s Research Council will be matched dollar-for-dollar up to $10,000. Thank you to generous donors, Dr. Anthony Aramoonie ‘94 and Nicole Aramoonie for making this possible! Dedman College Scholars Challenge Support scholarships and help us meet the challenge from longtime SMU supporters Carl Sewell ’66 and Peggy Higgins [...]

By Katherine Nickles| 2019-03-04T10:11:09+00:00 March 5th, 2019|Anthropology, Biology, Chemistry, DCII, Dedman College of Humanities and Sciences, Dedman College Research, Earth Sciences, Economics, English, Events, History, Mathematics, Philosophy, Physics, Political Science, Psychology, Religious Studies, Sociology, Statistical Science, World Languages and Literatures|Comments Off

Government shutdown freezes Dallas scientists’ work — and paychecks

Dallas Morning News Originally Posted: January 16, 2019 The 25-foot-long swimming lizards sit alone in the dark. A few weeks ago, they drew thousands of visitors a day at the Washington, D.C., National Museum of Natural History, where they helped tell the story of shifting continents, evolution and life on Earth. Now the museum is closed, a casualty of the partial government shutdown. "It just makes no sense," said Louis Jacobs, a paleontologist at Southern Methodist University who spent months assembling the exhibit with a team of colleagues and students. The show was a career highlight for Jacobs, who retired from SMU last May, and a source of pride for his team and the school. It showcases 85-million-year-old fossils that Jacobs and colleagues unearthed along the coastal cliffs of West Africa starting [...]

By Katherine Nickles| 2019-01-17T09:41:36+00:00 January 17th, 2019|Dedman College of Humanities and Sciences, Dedman College Research, Earth Sciences, Faculty News, Graduate News|Comments Off

Returning to the Hilltop to Shape a New Generation of Scientists

Dedman College News Originally Posted: Jan. 1, 2019 Dr. Heather DeShon, Associate Professor in the Roy M. Huffington Department of Earth Sciences, describes how her love of science as a child led her to pursue a career in academia, her return to the Hilltop as a member of the faculty, and how women are making progress in the sciences. How did you first discover your passion for geophysics? In elementary school I always chose the earthquake or volcano for class projects and loved to camp and be outdoors with my family, and I remained very interested in all things science throughout junior high and high school. My mother made me read her National Geographic magazine so she could have someone to talk to about the articles, and that [...]

By Katherine Nickles| 2019-01-04T08:01:52+00:00 January 4th, 2019|Dedman College of Humanities and Sciences, Dedman College Research, Earth Sciences, Faculty News|Comments Off

Earth Sciences Faculty Remember Star Pupil and Friend Lü Junchang

Dedman College News Originally Posted: December 12, 2018 Faculty in the Roy M. Huffington Department of Earth Sciences were stunned by the sudden death in October of Lü Junchang, one of China’s leading dinosaur experts and a beloved former student who received his Ph.D from SMU in 2004. Writing about his death in Scientific American, writer Richard Coniff called him one of the most important dinosaur researchers in the past half-century. Junchang, 53, was a researcher at the Institute of Geology at the Chinese Academy of Geological Sciences in Beijing. Paleontologist Stephen Brusatte, in his 2018 book, The Rise and Fall of the Dinosaurs, described Junchang as having curiously accented English because of his Chinese cadence and the Texas drawl he picked up as a graduate student at [...]

By Katherine Nickles| 2018-12-12T11:11:33+00:00 December 12th, 2018|Dedman College of Humanities and Sciences, Dedman College Research, Earth Sciences|Comments Off

Ever Wonder how Exhibits are Made? Here’s Your Answer

Smithsonian.com Originally Posted: December 7, 2018 On a slow November afternoon at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of Natural History, exhibit writer Juliana Olsson and intern Myria Perez slipped behind a temporary barrier to sneak a peek at “Sea Monsters Unearthed,” the museum’s newest exhibit scheduled to open the next morning. With the quiet, dramatically-lit space all to themselves, the two reminisced on the years of work that led to this moment. Juliana: A lot of people go through a dinosaur phase as kids, but I think we can safely say that neither of us grew out of it. What was your paleontology journey? Myria: I was definitely that kid. My mom would take me to the Houston Museum of Natural Science growing up, and my favorite part was the paleontology [...]

By Katherine Nickles| 2018-12-07T11:55:15+00:00 December 7th, 2018|Dedman College of Humanities and Sciences, Dedman College Research, Earth Sciences, Faculty News|Comments Off

Fossils From Angola Bring Strange Yet Familiar Ocean into View

VOA Originally Posted: November 26, 2018 Some may be familiar with mythical sea monsters. For example, Scotland’s infamous Loch Ness Monster “Nessie,” and Giganto -- fictional beasts of comic book fame. But millions of years ago, real-life sea monsters lived and thrived in what we now call the South Atlantic Ocean. South Atlantic Ocean basin As the continents of South America and Africa separated millions of years ago, scientists say a fantastic array of ferocious predators and other lifeforms colonized the newly formed body of water off the coast of Angola. That diverse collection of marine reptiles included mosasaurs (aquatic lizards), plesiosaurs (which exhibited broad flat bodies, large paddlelike limbs, and typically a long flexible neck and small head), and the more familiar giant [...]

By Katherine Nickles| 2018-11-27T10:03:37+00:00 November 29th, 2018|Dedman College of Humanities and Sciences, Dedman College Research, Earth Sciences, Events, Faculty News, Undergraduate News|Comments Off

Workers find Ice Age-era bones, fossils at DFW Airport

Star Telegram Originally Posted: Nov. 13, 2018 Fossils that are thousands of years old were found at the Dallas/Fort Worth Airport earlier this month. In fact, they’re about 11,000 years old and are the only remains dating to the Ice Age that have been found at the airport. The airport announced the findings on Twitter Tuesday afternoon, though the fossils were found on Nov. 2 and 3. “Two employees in DFW’s Environmental Affairs Department found the pieces of the mammoth tooth while conducting routine field tests for potential impacts to the environment,” a spokesperson for the airport said in an email to the Star-Telegram. A bison thigh bone was found during an annual safety/Life Saver Exercise. Dale A. Winkler, of the Department of Earth [...]

By Katherine Nickles| 2018-11-21T07:07:17+00:00 November 23rd, 2018|Dedman College of Humanities and Sciences, Dedman College Research, Earth Sciences, Faculty News|Comments Off