Previous Projects
This is only a listing of the major projects I have worked on outside of classes. The projects are summed up in a couple of lines and a few images to show what was done. This is not meant to be the all encompassing project, just a little snippet of it. Any questions on the projects feel free to email me (email on bottom of page).
2001 - 2002
Lehane, J.R. and Over, D.J. 2002. Canid and rodent
scavenging on Pleistocene cave bear: Geological Society of America Abstracts with
Programs 34 (6); p.150
This was the first real project that I did. It was for my invertebrate paleontology class but since my professor knew how much I was into vertebrates he let me work on this instead. The goal of the project was to show that scavenging occurred to Pleistocene cave bear bones by comparing it to teeth marks made on pig bones by mice and a dog.
The cave bear, Ursus spelaeus, front right paw
The pig bones used for chew mark comparisons
SEM image of mouse chew mark
SEM (Scanning electron microscope) image of dog chew mark
The poster presented as the GSA convention, 2002
2002 - 2003
Young, R.A. 2003. Recent and long-term sedimentation and erosion along the Genesee River floodplain in Livingston and Monroe Counties, NY. Funded by the US Army Corps of Engineers. pp. 1-40
This project was funded through the US Army Corps of Engineers and directed by Dr. Young. The purpose was to find different erosion rates along the Genesee River from Mount Morris to Rochester, NY and to discover a cause for faster erosion and possibly a solution. This required several different aspects with the first part including a fellow geologist Jeff Mortier. The two of us canoed the river between these two cities. All the while mapping the edge of the river with GPS points, measuring the width with a laser distancing tool, and documented the location with digital photographs. I then rectified aerial photographs of the river from different years and used them in ArcGIS 8. I then traced the rivers and included the current river location using the GPS positions.
Me being used as Dr. Young's pawn and holding a scale
for point bar and overbank sediments
Me and Jeff holding a scale to show tree height along a
meander point bar (actually at the B on the map directly below)
One small section on the river showing the GPS locations.
Note the location of the points around 334. The edge of the
river is not even near where it is on the map.
Map created in ArcGIS 8
The fastest growing meander of the Genesee River. I created the map using
aerial photographs from the years listed and overlying them using "permanent
structures" as anchor points like roads and buildings. Then the river was traced
over with the black line representing the most recent location.
2003 - 2005
Lehane, J.R. 2005. Anatomy and relationship of Shuvosaurus, a basal theropod from the Triassic of Texas. Masters Thesis Texas Tech University, Lubbock, Texas.
Click
here to download a copy of my thesis
So essentially my thesis project involved rebuilding a skull attributed to the dinosaur Shuvosaurus inexpectatus. The skull first needed to be taken apart, cleaned and undistorted. These pieces then needed to be cast and their mirror images needed to be created since only 1/2 the skull remained. Then some of the missing pieces needed to be created using closely resembling animals as a template.
The back half of the reconstructed skull
Part of the process of casting the bones. They need to be coated in
rubber in 2 parts with clay covering the part not being duplicated.
The completed reconstruction dorsal (top) view
Comparison of the lateral view of the pre-reconstructed skull (left) and the post-reconstructed skull (right). The outline of the right skull is also the background for the website