This thesis investigates the development of an animatronic robot with the objective of showing how modern animatronic models created as special effects have roots in models created during the scientific and mechanical revolution of the 17th and 18th centuries. It is noted that animatronic models that are available today have not been described in any great detail and most are covered by industrial secrecy. This project utilises technologies developed during the latter part of the 20th century and into the beginning of the 21st century to create the design of the animatronic robot. The objective of the project is to bring effective designs for animatronic robots into the public domain. The project will investigate a large variety of different mechanisms and apply them to various functioning parts of the model, with the design and method of each of these functions discussed. From this, one main part of the project, the jaw, will receive the focus of construction. Once the construction is complete this will be evaluated against what improvements and changes could be made for future iterations, with a revised design produced based on what has been learned.

No description available.

No description available.

Boechera is a large genus of flowering plants whose taxa are found primarily in North America. Boechera vivariensis (S.L. Welsh) W.A. Weber (the Park rockcress) is restricted to the Uintah Basin on Weber sandstone substrates in the vicinity of Dinosaur National Monument and Blue Mountain. The nomenclature of Park rockcress is significantly impacted by the discovery that the type collections of the taxon represent a rare, apomictic diploid resulting from the hybridization between B. thompsonii and an undescribed sexual diploid (to be called Boechera caeruleamontana sp. nov. Allphin and Windham). As a result, greater information is needed regarding how B. vivariensis and B. caeruleamontana. are distributed geographically in the region of Dinosaur National Monument and surrounding areas. Thus, we performed genetic analyses on leaf samples taken from over 50 individuals at known sites of B. vivariensis throughout its geographic range. Individuals from each site were also compared morphologically. We also compared associated plant communities at each site and characterized the soils. In our thorough sampling, we did not pick up B. vivariensis. All individuals sampled belonged to B. caeruleamontana, suggesting that most individuals previously assigned to B. vivariensis, are actually representative of B. caeruleamonanta. Populations of B. caeruleamontana were genetically diverse compared to other Boechera species, most likely indicative of its insect pollination strategy. However, all populations had lower heterozygosity than expected based upon Hardy-Weinberg expectations. Reproductive and genetic data indicated that populations are showing signs of inbreeding. The population at Jones Hole Fish Hatchery was most unique genetically, morphologically, and reproductively.

Pachycephalosaur diversity and systematics is poorly resolved, mainly due to the incomplete nature of their remains. The largest sample of pachycephalosaurs is from the Belly River Group of Alberta, but this sample is also the most problematic in terms of alpha taxonomic diversity. Material from this assemblage has been proposed to represent from a single species to up to four distinct genera. Each of these views depends on different interpretations of morphology, ornamentation, ontogeny, and sexual dimorphism, but none have been adequately tested. Here I analyze the diversity of pachycephalosaurs with particular emphasis on Stegoceras validum and 'Prenocephale' brevis. The ontogeny of these species is described using comparative morphology, histology, and morphometrics. New specimens are described and the first detailed pachycephalosaur growth series supported by multiple, independent lines of evidence is presented. Phylogenetic analysis utilizing results from this study provides a new hypothesis for the evolutionary relationships of pachycephalosaurs.

Pachycephalosaur diversity and systematics is poorly resolved, mainly due to the incomplete nature of their remains. The largest sample of pachycephalosaurs is from the Belly River Group of Alberta, but this sample is also the most problematic in terms of alpha taxonomic diversity. Material from this assemblage has been proposed to represent from a single species to up to four distinct genera. Each of these views depends on different interpretations of morphology, ornamentation, ontogeny, and sexual dimorphism, but none have been adequately tested. Here I analyze the diversity of pachycephalosaurs with particular emphasis on Stegoceras validum and 'Prenocephale' brevis. The ontogeny of these species is described using comparative morphology, histology, and morphometrics. New specimens are described and the first detailed pachycephalosaur growth series supported by multiple, independent lines of evidence is presented. Phylogenetic analysis utilizing results from this study provides a new hypothesis for the evolutionary relationships of pachycephalosaurs.

The Lower Cretaceous Cedar Mountain Formation preserves several vertebrate faunas and has the potential of providing critical timing information pertaining to Early Cretaceous dinosaurs and the Sierran magmatic arc. Historically, the Morrison/Cedar Mountain contact and the duration of the unconformity between them have been difficult or impossible to determine because 1) the formations were deposited in similar environments, 2) the basal Cedar Mountain Formation is composed of reworked Morrison Formation, and 3) there are no radiometric ages for the lower Cedar Mountain Formation. A stratigraphic study through central Utah reveals a diagnostic suite of pedogenic and sedimentologic characters across the previously enigmatic boundary. The uppermost Morrison Formation is characterized by redoximorphic paleosol features, including iron concentrations, manganese-coated grains, and intense red-purple-green mottling. Upsection increases in chert-pebble lags and channelized conglomerates within the paleosol section indicate a period of reduced accommodation space in the Tithonian. The paleosols are usually capped by a groundwater or pedogenic carbonate. This unit is consistently present from Green River, Utah to the Utah-Colorado border. The lower Cedar Mountain Formation above this package is a poorly sorted mixture of fine-grained material and sand-gravel sized chert grains. Within a sequence stratigraphic framework, these characters record a terrestrial sequence boundary in the uppermost Morrison Formation and degradational-aggradational systems tracts in the Cedar Mountain Formation. To resolve the lack of age control for the basal Cedar Mountain Formation, a geochronologic zircon study was conducted near the Dalton Wells dinosaur quarry, Moab, Utah. The Dalton Wells quarry, along with numerous other fossil assemblages occurs in the basal Yellowcat Member. Zircons from the Dalton Wells quarry and a correlative eggshell site place the age of this horizon near the Barremian/Aptian boundary at ~124 Ma. Thus, the Yellowcat fauna is time equivalent with the feathered dinosaurs of the Yixian Formation, of Liaoning, China. This age constrains the Morrison/Cedar Mountain unconformity to a period of magmatic quiescence in western North America from 148 Ma-124 Ma. The basal Cedar Mountain age coincides with renewed magmatic activity at ~125 Ma. The Cedar Mountain Formation covers a period of 27 Myr and likely contains numerous small unconformities.

Mineralogical and petrographic analyses of the upper Jurassic - lower Cretaceous units in the vicinity of the Dinosaur National Monument quarry near Jensen, Utah, have elucidated their characteristics and the locations of formational boundaries. The lower part of the Morrison Formation is distinguished by a decreased amount of illite and an increased amount of kaolinite. In contrast, the underlying Curtis Formation contains an approximately equal mixture of illite and kaolinite. The lower Salt Wash Member and the upper Brushy Basin Member of the Morrison are both lithologically and mineralogically identifiable in this area. Above the boundary between the two, kaolinite decreases and illite increases. The strata above the Morrison, here recognized as an extension of the Cedar Mountain Formation, reveal another change in clay content. They contain kaolinite as the dominant clay mineral, whereas illite is almost completely absent. The upper Curtis Formation is a near-shore marine deposit, whereas the members of the Morrison Formation are fluvial and lacustrine. A possible climatic or depositional change is equated with the changes in the clay content within the members of the Morrison Formation. After deposition of the Morrison, the lower Cretaceous sediments that now comprise the Cedar Mountain Formation accumulated. These formed in a transitional zone (fluvial to littoral) and were eventually covered by the Dakota Formation (littoral) and the Mowry Formation (marine).

No description available.

The present work is a general survey of the vegetation of the Utah portion of the Dinosaur National Monument with special emphasis on some of the ecological aspects of the area. The vegetation ranges from xerophytic plant communities of the lower elevations to mesophytic communities of the higher elevations. Hydrophytic plant communities are also present to a limited extent along the Green River and where seeps or springs arise. Soils vary from fine clay to coarse gravel. The dividing lines between formations is often marked by extreme differences in soil type. During the author's first collecting trip into the Monument in April 1955 the possibility of correlations between geological formations and vegetation was suggested by the occurrence of certain plant species on some of the formations. The presence of a well defined geological section in a relatively short distance makes it possible to determine if such correlations exist.