Category: Students

Ichnoplanet collaboration with the Museo Paleontológico Egidio Feruglio in Trelew, Argentina!

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Jack Milligan recently visited Patagonia to study turtle fossils from the Paleocene Salamanca Formation in Chubut, Argentina, analyzing trace fossils on turtle shells. This study is ongoing, but early observations indicate that the tracemakers behind the trace fossils seen on Chelid and Pan-chelid turtle carapaces and plastrons include alligatoroids, beetles, leeches, and barnacles.

The image shows an example of a trace fossil left on a turtle fossil by a beetle, the morphology similar to Osteocallis isp.

Through this research, the trace fossils can be used to understand the taphonomic pathway of these turtles, and how the trace fossils can be used to inform paleoenvironmental conditions at different stages of taphonomy. In addition to the trace fossils, several paleopathologies were identified, many of which could have resulted from trophic interactions between the turtles and other animals.

Thanks to Dr. Juliana Sterli and Dr. Marcelo Krause for hosting this research at the MEF, this will be a very cool project!

Written by Jack Milligan

Ichnoplanet student challenges interpretations of dinosaur behaviour through paleoart

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Photo by Jack Milligan

Recently, Ichnoplanet master’s student Kaitlin Lindblad has had her fantastic artistic work featured in the Department of Geology at the University of Saskatchewan, focusing on depicting dinosaurs behaving in ways not commonly seen. Aside from her studies, she is a paleoartist who uses digital painting techniques to bring ancient ecosystems to life for the purposes of entertainment, education and outreach, and scientific communication in the literature.

The pieces she has done for the museum include a Tyrannosaurus rex scratching its back on a tree, and a Triceratops aggressing against two Thescalosaurus. She is hard at work creating more pieces for the museum, and our research group! We’re excited for what awesome piece she’ll come up with next.

Read her story in USask News. Listen to her radio interviews with CBC Regina and CBC Saskatoon. Check out Kailtin’s profile here.

Written by Jack Milligan

Congrats Dr. Andrei Ichaso!

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Last week, our own Andrei Ichaso successfully defended his doctoral thesis! His thesis focused on the stratigraphy, sedimentology, and ichnology of the middle Cambrian to Early Ordovician Deadwood Formation in western Canada and the midwestern United States. Congratulations Dr. Ichaso!

Andrei’s doctoral thesis earned him the University of Saskatchewan Graduate Thesis Award in the Physical & Engineering Sciences category from the College of Graduate & Postdoctoral Studies at USASK. Congratulations Andrei!

Check out Andrei’s ICHNOPLANET profile here.

Written by Jack Milligan

Tracking hadrosaurs in northwestern Alberta with the Boreal Alberta Dinosaur Project

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This past summer, Jack Milligan represented Ichnoplanet during fieldwork conducted by the Boreal Alberta Dinosaur Project (BADP) at the University of Alberta (UA), and the Philip J. Currie Dinosaur Museum (PJCDM) under the leadership of UA professor Dr. Corwin Sullivan, and USASK adjunct professor and PJCDM curator Dr. Emily Bamforth. Objectives of this fieldwork include collecting fossils from the late Cretaceous Wapiti Formation near the city of Grande Prairie. The Wapiti Formation is rich in fossils, including freshwater invertebrates, small vertebrates, and especially non-avian dinosaurs. The most common dinosaurs in northern Alberta based on the number of occurrences are the hadrosaurs, commonly referred to as the “duck-billed” dinosaurs. These are large herbivorous dinosaurs that have been suggested to travel in large herds in search of new food sources and as a defense against predatory theropod dinosaurs.

During July and August, BADP collected several large, three-toed hadrosaur tracks from various sites across northwestern Alberta. These tracks are isolated natural casts of footprints that infilled the original track and weathered out of situ. Some of these tracks were carried out of the site by hand across rushing rivers much to the chagrin, all be it temporary, by the team. Studying these tracks will allow the BADP team to learn more about the kinds of environments these dinosaurs were walking through and the taphonomy and different preservation of the tracks.

Large hadrosaur track with a rock hammer for scale, surrounded by grass and mud covered stones

Images provided by Jack Milligan and Emily Bamforth.

Written by Jack Milligan

Manuel Pérez-Pueyo, Doctor of Science from the University of Zaragoza

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Ichnoplanet would love to congratulate Dr. Manuel Pérez-Pueyo on his successful Ph.D. thesis defense at the University of Zaragoza, Zaragoza, Spain. His thesis is titled; “Contributions of the Tremp Fm (upper Maastrichtian) in Ribagorza (Aragonese Pyrenees, Huesca) to the knowledge of finicretaceous vertebrate communities on the Ibero-Armorican island.” Our own Luis Buatois was an external supervisor of this research. You can read more about Dr. Manuel Pérez-Pueyo’s research here.

We’re excited to hear about this outstanding accomplishment, and can’t wait to see where Manuel goes next!

Written by Jack Milligan