Art alumnus honoured to be dinosaur’s namesake

A UWindsor art grad’s work as a paleontology laboratory technician has earned him a little piece of immortality.

Ian Morrison (BFA visual arts 1988) has had a newly-identified species of horned dinosaur named after him: Gryphoceratops morrisoni.

“He seemed like the most appropriate person to name it after,” says David Evans, associate curator of vertebrate paleontology at the Royal Ontario Museum, where Morrison has worked for more than 20 years. “What better person than the one who puzzled it together?”

An expedition from the museum discovered lower right jaw fragments of Gryphoceratops morrisoni in the fossil beds of southern Alberta in 1950; they languished in the corner of a collection drawer until Dr. Evans pulled them out.

“I recognized this little jaw but it was in a bunch of little pieces, too many and too incomplete to put together,” he recalls. “I showed it to my colleague Michael Ryan and we tried to puzzle it together for about six to eight years.”

When they gave up, Evans decided to ask his laboratory technician to give it a try. Minutes later, Morrison had the pieces placed and was back to ask Evans if he wanted the jaw reconstructed and glued.

“Within an hour, Ian had the whole thing together,” says Evans. “It was those pieces that allowed us to notice a bunch of distinctive features of the jaw and clinched the fact that it was very different from what we had before.”

Morrison says he has always been good at putting pieces together, a skill he attributes to his art school education.

“I majored in sculpture at the University of Windsor and the training I received in fabricating three-dimensional objects translates well into the preparation and display of dinosaur bones,” he says. “That day the puzzle turned out to be just as important scientifically as it was interesting to solve.”

Evans says many of the best technicians in his field come from arts backgrounds.

“They are able to picture things in three dimensions and they are perfectionists,” he says. “It takes somebody with the patience, the manual dexterity and the skill to be able to work on these samples.

“Technicians are so important to what we do, and in Ian, we’ve got one of the best.”

Morrison says that having a dinosaur named is a nice sort of pat on the back.

“I’m honoured to have my work for the Royal Ontario Museum acknowledged in such a unique way,” he says. “I’ve done my best to support the ROM’s vertebrate palaeo department, from advancing the curators’ research, to assisting with educational activities, to digging up fossils in Alberta’s badlands. I’m very lucky to work with a great team and I look forward to contributing more.”

About the dinosaur

Gryphoceratops morrisoni lived during the Late Cretaceous period, about 83 million years ago. It had a shorter and deeper jaw than other leptoceratopsids. In reference to the dinosaur’s beaked face, the genus is called “Gryphon” after the mythical Greek figure with the head of an eagle and the body of a lion.

Due to the characters of the mandible and its small size, researchers believe that fully grown, this dinosaur measured less than one-half meter long. To date, this makes it the smallest adult horned dinosaur in North America and one of the smallest adult plant-eating dinosaurs known.

Evans says that small-bodied dinosaurs are poorly represented in the fossil record, which is why fragmentary remains like this constitute a major contribution to the understanding of dinosaur evolution. Research suggests that leptoceratopsids originated in Asia, then radiated to North America and diversified here. The new species is the earliest record of the herbivores on this continent.

Gryphoceratops morrisoni, along with another new leptoceratopsid, is described in a paper Evans co-authored with Ryan, who is curator of vertebrate palaeontology at the Cleveland Museum of Natural History. Contributing authors are Philip Currie of the University of Alberta, Caleb Brown of the University of Toronto; and Don Brinkman of the Royal Tyrrell Museum of Palaeontology. The paper, published in Cretaceous Research, is available online.

Math student to attend Summer School for Women in August

This summer school isn’t remedial – it’s an honour.

Rachel Mok Tze Chung, a second-year student in mathematics and statistics, is one of 16 women from across Canada invited to the two-week Summer School for Women in Math Conference in Waterloo this August.

The conference is intended to encourage attendees to continue on to graduate work in mathematics. The program will provide both enrichment of the undergraduate curriculum and a research component in a collaborative environment.

“I wasn’t expecting to get in,” says Mok Tze Chung. “I was really surprised.”

A member of the President’s Honour Roll, she holds an Outstanding Scholars appointment and last semester served a placement with professor Zhiguo Hu, working with the document markup language LaTeX.

Her expenses, including transportation and accommodation, are fully covered by the conference organizers and sponsors: the Fields Institute for Research in Mathematical Sciences, the Canadian Mathematical Society, the Pacific Institute for the Mathematical Sciences, and the University of Waterloo.

Thirsty Scholar reopening as a restaurant only

A message issued jointly Wednesday by University of Windsor Students’ Alliance president André Capaldi and UWindsor president Alan Wildeman announced the reopening of the Thirsty Scholar effective Monday, March 19, with shortened evening hours of operation.

Here is the full text:

The University of Windsor Students’ Alliance (UWSA) together with the University of Windsor, have agreed to temporarily reopen the Thirsty Scholar as a licensed restaurant only, starting on Monday, March 19, from 11 a.m. to 9 p.m. daily.  This new schedule will enable the UWSA to provide an important food service venue, as part of our commitment to make the CAW Student Centre a valued meeting place for students.

All former pub activities such as musical entertainment and the dance floor will no longer be offered. The restaurant will remain open until Friday, March 30, which is its usual closing date at the end of the semester. At that time, the Thirsty Scholar will be closed until further notice.

A review of the Thirsty Scholar’s pub operations continues, with a goal to ensure the safety of our campus community. Both the University of Windsor and the UWSA wish to thank all UWindsor students for their continued co-operation.

Group exhibition to offer a sneak peek at MFA student works

Six students in their first year of the Master of Fine Arts program at the School of Visual Arts will offer a sneak peek at their work and practices in a group exhibition opening Saturday at SB Contemporary Art.

The exhibition, appropriately titled PEEK, features works by Patricia Coates, Nicolas de Cosson, Michael DiRisio, Tommy Mayberry, Bruce Thompson and Owen Eric Wood. They explore a range of issues and themes, including the environment, gender issues, queer theory, identity and relationships, says curator Sarah Beveridge.

PEEK is about looking, really seeing, and at the same time is about reflection,” she says. “These artists are viscerally responding, adapting and representing the environments that surround them; they invite you to do the same.”

The show will remain on display through April 28. A free public reception celebrating its opening will run 1 to 4 p.m. Saturday, March 17. The gallery is located at 1017 Church Street.

University Bookstore to stock new version iPads for official launch Friday

The University Bookstore will have the iPad 3 in stock for sale on its official launch date, Friday, March 16.

“We are delighted to be able to announce that,” says marketing manager Martin Deck. “As an authorized campus store for Apple, it is wonderful to be in the position to offer this to our customers as early as anywhere in the world.”

The Bookstore will have two models on hand Friday: the basic 16 GB iPad, in black with wi-fi only for $519 and the 64 GB iPad in black with 4g connectivity for $849. Apple has already shipped both models, which should be in the store on Friday, Deck says. A third model, with 32 GB and 4G is still on order.

The Bookstore should have a demo model of the new iPad by Friday, March 23, at which time doubters will be able to see for themselves the difference that a high-definition display makes, says Deck. The new iPad has much higher visual resolution than the iPad 2.

Grab-and-go offers fast, healthy options for cafeteria diners

Grab-and-go is good for you, says Paolo Vasapolli, assistant manager of satellite operations for Food Services.

“We are heading toward increasing this concept,” he said Wednesday. “It provides a fresh and healthy meal at an economical price point.”

The Marketplace food court in the CAW Student Centre is increasing the number and range of items available in its Grab-and-go coolers, which feature pre-made sandwiches, salads, fruit drinks and light desserts.

“It’s a spot where students can come in and get something quick that’s still nutritious,” Vasapolli said.

On a typical day, the coolers will serve deli sandwiches on whole-grain bread, vegetable and dip platters, sushi plates, hummus with salad in a wrap, plus packaged pasta, potato and green salads.

“We also have these bottled smoothies, milk, V-8 drinks and vitamin waters,” said Vasapolli. “We want them all in one place so the healthy choices are easy to find.”

Pie goes down easy for math aficionados

There’s a difference between math and baking, says Kevin St. Denis: “Math is easier.”

The third-year mathematics major prepared a couple of pies in celebration of Pi Day, Wednesday in Erie Hall.

“It’s just some premade crust and I poured in two cans of filling – cherry and blueberry,” St. Denis said. “I tried to shape them like the letter R because I was going for two pie R.”

Dozens of students, faculty and staff from mathematics and computer science lined up for a free piece of pie as part of the annual observance of March 14 – 3.14 – representing the ration of a circle’s circumference to its diameter.

“A lot of math revolves around pi,” said fourth-year math student Tom Wilson. “Anything to do with calculus – it’s definitely an interesting number. Free pie is also cool.”

St. Denis’ classmate Anna Hope took exception to his characterization of the differences between baking and math.

“Baking is an exact science, just like math,” she said. “You don’t get the right results if you fudge the measurements. You can’t round down.”

She suffers from celiac disease and so brought in a pie with a gluten-free crust.

“It substitutes potato, tapioca and corn flour,” she said. “It’s good!”

Dillon Hall work to close washrooms Friday

Staff from DiMaio Design and JASEL Engineering will conduct measuring of room 364 and all washrooms in Dillon Hall on Friday, March 16, in preparation for proposed renovations in those spaces.

Each washroom will be closed to use while the measurement work is conducted, between the hours of 8:30 a.m. and 4:30 p.m.

Please direct any questions or concerns to project administrator Roger Rivard at 519-253-3000, ext. 2166.

Sunny days: warm weather has students shedding socks

Patrick Murphy

Barefooting: First-year psychology major Patrick Murphy was one of hundreds of students on campus Wednesday to don sandals and shorts yesterday, as the temperature climbed well above 20˚ C.

“The sun is out, so I threw off my shoes and threw on some flip-flops,” he said.

Environment Canada predicts the warm weather will last through the week. Spring will officially begin Tuesday, March 20.

 

Speaker to address sexual differentiation in spectatorship

Due to an editing error, Wednesday’s DailyNews published the wrong title for a public lecture tonight by Tracy Davis of Northwestern University.

The correct title of her presentation, part of the Humanities Research Group’s Distinguished Speakers Series, is “Spectatorship’s Sexual Differentiation: From Liberal Individualism to Relationalist Subjecthood.” It is set for 7 p.m. Thursday, March 15, in the Freed Orman Centre, Assumption University.

Ethel M. Barber Professor in Performing Arts in the Department of Theatre at Northwestern University, Dr. Davis is a specialist in performance theory, theatre historiography, and research methodology. She is director of the graduate school's Excellence in Doctoral Mentoring initiative and chair of Northwestern University Press's editorial board.

DailyNews regrets the error.