WVU Parkersburg Student Presents Dinosaur Research.

Contact Dr. Ed Crisp, associate professor of geology, 304-424-8327.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

A West Virginia University at Parkersburg student presented dinosaur research at the spring regional meeting of the Geological Society of America, held in Lexington, Ky.

Approximately 1,100 geoscientists attended the three-day meeting in which Matthew Spencer of Parkersburg, a WVU Parkersburg science major, was a presenter.

Spencer’s research presentation was on "Description and Preliminary Taphonomy of the Partial Skeletal Remains of a Juvenile Diplodocid Sauropod From the Jurassic Morrison Formation of Utah." The research paper described the findings of bones from an adult and juvenile sauropod and the speculation that they may have perished in a stream channel or an adjacent floodplain 150 million years ago.

The college sponsors a field studies expedition each summer, led by Edward Crisp, geology professor, to a dinosaur excavation in Emery County, Utah, where students study the geologic history of the region and practice geologic and paleontologic data collection.