Prehistoric
bird studies have always interested me since my first semester as an undergrad,
due to the evolutionary origin of birds from dinosaurs is a discovery only
known for a few decades. My project, under the mentorship of Dr. Mark Uhen,
sought to find paleoenvironmental relationships within Paravialians and
Pterosaurs. Paravialians are a group of theropod (two-legged) dinosaurs that
include ancestral/early birds that lived on earth about ~161 million years ago
to ~66 million years ago and feathered dinosaurs that were closely related, but
not quite birds. Pterosaurs on the other hand were not dinosaurs, but they were
flying reptiles.
My
research helped me develop scientific skills at every level, including but not
limited to gathering information, data analysis/synthesis, and technical
writing, which are all necessary for grad school. My paleontological knowledge
greatly increased as I got to test my limits and apply what I knew and beyond,
not to mention that grad schools do see undergraduate funded research as a huge
plus.
On a
weekly basis, I searched for peer-reviewed publications that gave me necessary
data to input into the Paleobiology Database (PBDB). I collected femur lengths
for paravialians and wingspan lengths for the pterosaurs analyzed. From there,
I exposed them to multiple mathematical models in order to generate their
estimated body masses. Eventually, I extrapolated the environmental settings
for all of the fossil occurrences considered.
Studies
regarding the environmental distribution of organism might give not only give
us insight into the relationships between extinct creatures, but also extant
ones. Human intervention could affect the environmental distribution of
organisms (such as birds) and we might encounter that because of this, these
organisms end up exposed to unpredicted competitors, which could potentially
affect the survival chances of multiple animal groups. As a closing statement,
I am very thankful for OSCAR allowing me to be part of the URSP and I highly
recommend you to take part of the program if the opportunity arises.
