Latest news with #SulRossStateUniversity
Yahoo
21-04-2025
- Science
- Yahoo
Texas geology students unearth bone of giant dinosaur in Big Bend National Park
BREWSTER COUNTY, Texas – Budding geologists on a research expedition in a Texas national park have unearthed a massive vertebra from a giant long-necked dinosaur that roamed during the Cretaceous Period. Students from Sul Ross State University's geology program visited Big Bend National Park in March to retrieve the bone belonging to an Alamosaurus, the largest known land-dwelling animal to have lived in North America. Fossils from the sauropod are known to be found in the Big Bend but are usually fragmentary and poorly preserved, according to researchers. Cave Discovery Of 6,000-Year-old Hunter's Toolkit Offers Rare Glimpse Into Earliest Lives In West Texas The university said the trip's goals included conducting structural and stratigraphic analyses of Cretaceous—Eocene rocks. The specimen collected by the students, led by assistant professors Jesse Kelsch and Thomas Shiller, belongs to one of the most complete skeletons in the area, originally collected and described by researchers from the University of Texas in the 1970s. Associated vertebrae were previously collected from the same quarry by Shiller and his students and are currently being studied in the campus' paleontology article source: Texas geology students unearth bone of giant dinosaur in Big Bend National Park
Yahoo
16-04-2025
- General
- Yahoo
Jacob Spurlock is the Lobo of the Year
Apr. 15—Jacob Spurlock, a senior Communication Studies major from Dallas, was named the 2024-25 Lobo of the Year for Sul Ross State University at the Honors Convocation on April 14. Spurlock will graduate from SRSU at the commencement ceremony on Friday, May 9, at 5:30 p.m. at the Pete P. Gallego Center. Spurlock was the Texas State University System Student Scholar Award recipient in 2024 and served as the president of the Student Government Association for the 2023-24 academic year. He has served as the president of the Xi Epsilon chapter of Lambda Pi Eta, the National Communication Association Honor Society, since 2022, and as the president of Pi Sigma Alpha, the National Political Science Honor Society, since 2024. Spurlock is the recipient of multiple scholarship awards, including the McNair Scholar Program, the Paul and Teeby Forchheimer Communication Scholarship, the Henry Bertrand Jr., Memorial Scholarship, the Dr. D.J. Sibley Jr. Scholarship and the Charles B. David Scholarship. He has been named to the Dean's List following each of his semesters at Sul Ross and was a participant in the Student Research Symposium in 2023. Spurlock was the Outstanding Communication Student of the Year in 2022 and 2023. According to one of those who nominated him, he "is a man of integrity and strong moral beliefs. He is also a committed learner. When he starts talking about what he has learned about communication and personal interactions among individuals, he lights up. As he moves on to graduate school, Jake will represent Sul Ross State University well ... He truly has a servant's heart." Another wrote, "In his role as the president of the Student Government Association, I saw Jake embody what servant leadership is all about. He used his position to help others and to improve the campus and community for all. His public speaking and general communications skills greatly assisted him in these endeavors. I have also observed him graciously and professionally manage difficult situations, always seeking understanding and the common good." SRSU faculty and staff nominate students for Lobo of the Year each year in the spring. Nominees must be graduating in May or have done so in the fall or summer of the previous year, have an overall 3.0 GPA, display qualities of good citizenship and leadership, be active in student and/or community activities and may not have been a previous recipient of the award.
Yahoo
10-04-2025
- Science
- Yahoo
Sul Ross geology students collect vertebra from Alamosaurus in BBNP
Apr. 10—Students from the Sul Ross State University Geology program visited Big Bend National Park in March on a research mission and to retrieve dinosaur bones belonging to Alamosaurus. Led by Dr. Jesse Kelsch, an assistant professor, and Dr. Thomas Shiller, an associate professor, participants included students in Stratigraphic Analysis and Structural Geology courses. The goals of the trip included conducting structural and stratigraphic analyses of Cretaceous — Eocene rocks and to retrieve a large vertebra belonging to Alamosaurus, a long-necked dinosaur that lived in North America during the Cretaceous Period. Alamosaurus is the largest known land-dwelling animal to have lived in North America. Fossils from the giant sauropod are known in the Big Bend but are usually fragmentary and poorly preserved. The specimen collected by SRSU belongs to one of the most complete skeletons in the area, originally collected and described by researchers from the University of Texas in the 1970s. Associated vertebrae were previously collected from the same quarry by Dr. Shiller and his students and are currently being studied in the SRSU paleontology lab. For more information about the Geology program, visit
Washington Post
31-03-2025
- Science
- Washington Post
Scientists hope a newly discovered flower will return after rain in West Texas
DALLAS — Scientists who want to learn more about a tiny flower recently discovered in West Texas are hoping it will bloom again in a couple of weeks after rain finally fell in the area. Dubbed the wooly devil, the flower with furry leaves, purplish-striped petals and pops of yellow is a new genus and species in the same family as sunflowers and daisies: Asteraceae. It was discovered last year in Big Bend National Park, known for its rugged terrain of desert, canyons and mountains, on the border with Mexico. 'There's a lot to learn with this species so they're really just getting started,' said Carolyn Whiting, a Big Bend botanist. Scientists are hopeful the flowers will bloom again after rain fell on the drought-stricken park last week, giving them the opportunity to learn more including when the plants germinate, Whiting said. The flower was discovered in March 2024. Park volunteer Deb Manley and a park ranger were hiking in a remote area when they saw a patch of flowers that were smaller than a quarter and close to the ground. 'We stopped and took some photos and neither one of us had any idea,' Manley said. 'I could get it to family but I couldn't figure out any more than that. So we took photos and moved on, not realizing we had found a new genus.' When Manley got back from the hike, she started researching what the flower could be. She soon found that not only was she stumped, but others were too. Her post about the flower on iNaturalist, an online platform for nature enthusiasts 'caused a stir,' said Isaac Lichter Marck, a researcher at the California Academy of Sciences in San Francisco. A. Michael Powell, curator and director of the herbarium at Sul Ross State University in Alpine, said when Manley contacted him about the flower, he immediately thought it was something new. 'It wasn't anything I'd seen before,' said Powell, who has extensively studied the region. By the time a team went to collect samples of the flower over a month after the discovery, they had already begun to wither away. 'We really got out there just in the nick of time before the specimens would have been completely dried up,' Whiting said. The discovery of the flower was announced last month. Lichter Marck said they were able to extract DNA from the flower but that there's still a lot to learn. He said they don't know yet how it reproduces, or what potential uses it might have. They also need to determine if it's endangered. The wooly devil's official name — Ovicula biradiata — takes inspiration from its appearance: Ovicula, which means tiny sheep, is a nod to the hairs that cover its leaves; while biradiata, or bi-radial, refers to its two striped petals. Kelsey Wogan, environmental lab manager at Sul Ross State University, said she's excited to see if the wooly devil can be found in other places as well and what its range is. Whiting said the park is so well-studied that finding a new species was a surprise. 'The fact that there's still species out there that had slipped under the radar is pretty remarkable,' she said. Wogan said part of the excitement about the flower's discovery is that it shows 'there's still new and undescribed things out there.' 'It's the great reminder to keep your eyes open,' she said, 'and if you don't know what something is, it might be completely new.'
Yahoo
18-03-2025
- Science
- Yahoo
Texas hunter's ‘old stump' find was actually a rare mammoth tusk
A local visitor to the O2 Ranch believed he came across something special while hunting on the property in West Texas. But ranch manager Will Juett took some convincing. After researchers from Sul Ross State University (SRSU) descended on the historic property, Juett realized the discovery was indeed something special: It was an extremely rare mammoth tusk. 'I was skeptical when a deer hunter showed me a picture of what he thought was a fossil,' Juett said in a university announcement. 'I figured it was likely just an old stump.' The investigation began soon after Juett contacted Bryon Schroeder, a longtime acquaintance and director of SRSU's Center for Big Bend Studies (CBBS). Along with CBBS archeologist Erika Blecha and a few other colleagues, Schroeder's team traveled to O2 Ranch to examine the object found sticking out the ground in a creekbed's drainage area. 'We realized pretty quickly there was not more to the skeleton, just an isolated tusk that had been separated from the rest of the remains,' Schroeder explained. Researchers worked over two days to create a protective cast around the tusk for transport. After covering the fossil in plaster-soaked burlap strips, Schroeder's group then constructed a frame around the ranch discovery before hauling it to SRSU for further analysis. Although multiple mammoth and mastodon species existed across modern North America until roughly 12,000 years ago, few of the elephant relatives ever migrated into West Texas. According to Schroeder, only a single mammoth tusk excavated from the Trans-Pecos region has ever been carbon-dated—and that happened over 60 years ago. Even then, the process at the time was far less accurate than dating methods used today that can narrow down an age range to within 500 years. Schroeder believes a more precise estimate for the O2 Ranch tusk should be completed within the next few months. It's too early to determine the exact mammoth species just yet. But as Gizmodo noted, the tusk possibly belonged to a Columbian mammoth (Mammuthus columbi), one of the only species documented in Texas. The Columbian mammoth was a distant cousin of the more recognizable woolly mammoth, but could still grow to around 13 feet tall while weighing around 10 tons. The reasons behind their eventual extinction remain debatable, but they likely died out due to a combination of factors including climate change and human hunting. It's a bit poetic, then, that hunting is what led humans back to one of these megafauna in 2025.
