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Wendy Sloboda

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Wendy J. Sloboda
Born1967/1968[1]
NationalityCanadian
Alma materUniversity of Lethbridge
OccupationFossil collector
Years active1987–present
Known forFossil discoveries

Wendy Sloboda is a Canadian fossil hunter from Warner, Alberta. She has made fossil discoveries of dinosaurs and other extinct animals on several continents, with finds in Canada, Argentina, Mongolia, France, and Greenland.[2] She is commemorated in name of the horned dinosaur Wendiceratops, remains of which she discovered in 2010, as well as the fossil footprint Barrosopus slobodai which she discovered in 2003.[3][4]

Biography

Illustration of Wendiceratops, which Sloboda discovered in 2010

In 1987, as a teenager, Sloboda discovered fossil eggshells in southern Alberta which she passed on to scientists, who uncovered multiple nests of hadrosaurs (duck-billed dinosaurs) including fossilized embryos.[5][6] She enrolled at the University of Lethbridge in 1989 and in the summer of 1990, discovered a hadrosaur skeleton.[7] She worked for sixteen years as a paleontological technician at the Royal Tyrrell Museum and started her own business, Mesozoic Wrex Repair, a fossil preparation and casting company, in 2001.[3][8] She earned B.A. in history from the University of Lethbridge in 2001.[3][9]

Paleontologist David Evans, of the Royal Ontario Museum calls Sloboda "basically a legend in Alberta. She's probably one of the best dinosaurs in the world."[4] Her discoveries include the first pterosaur bonebed in North America,[10] and a pterosaur leg showing evidence of predation by a small dinosaur[11] that inspired author Daniel Loxton's 2013 book Pterosaur Trouble.[12]

Sloboda has made numerous discoveries in Alberta's Dinosaur Provincial Park, including fossil skulls of Corythosaurus, ankylosaurs (including Euoplocephalus) and crocodilians.[13] In 1999, she discovered and prepared the first known fossils of a gravid (egg-containing) turtle.[14][15] In 2005, along with paleontologist Darla Zelenitsky, she described the oogenus Reticuloolithus: fossilized eggshells found in Alberta and Montana, believed to have been laid by maniraptoran dinosaurs such as oviraptorosaurs or dromaeosaurids.[16]

In 2003, while working in South America, Sloboda discovered a fossil footprint in Plaza Huincul, Argentina. The footprint was described as a new ichnospecies by paleontologists Rodolfo Coria, Philip J. Currie, Alberto Garrido, and David Eberth, who honored Sloboda by naming it Barrosopus slobodai, which translates as "Sloboda's muddy foot".[17]

In 2010, Sloboda discovered a rock containing a bone fragment in Southern Alberta, between the Milk River and the Canada-US border.[4] Evans and Ryan described the remains as a new genus and species, dubbed Wendiceratops pinhornensis, with the genus name combining Sloboda's first name with the suffix "-ceratops", common in horned dinosaur names.[18] In celebration of having a genus named after her, Sloboda had a drawing of the dinosaur and its scientific name tattooed on her arm.[4]

Publications

  • Chin, K.; Eberth, D. A.; Schweitzer, M. H.; Rando, T. A.; Sloboda, W. J.; Horner, J. R. (2003). "Remarkable preservation of undigested muscle tissue within a Late Cretaceous tyrannosaurid coprolite from Alberta, Canada". PALAIOS. 18 (3): 286–294. Bibcode:2003Palai..18..286C. doi:10.1669/0883-1351(2003)018<0286:rpoumt>2.0.co;2. JSTOR 3515739. PMID 12866547. S2CID 9681069.
  • Zelenitsky, Darla K.; Sloboda, Wendy J. (2005). "Eggshells". In Philip J. Currie; Eva Bundgaard Koppelhus (eds.). Dinosaur Provincial Park: A Spectacular Ancient Ecosystem Revealed. Indiana University Press. pp. 398–404. ISBN 0-253-34595-2.

References

  1. ^ "Meet Wendiceratops, a 'spectacular' new horned dinosaur named after 'legend' Alberta fossil hunter". National Post. July 9, 2015.
  2. ^ Dunham, Will (July 8, 2015). "Who is Wendy and why is this dinosaur named after her?". Reuters.
  3. ^ a b c "A Passion for Paleontology" (PDF). U of L Journal. University of Lethbridge: 8–9. Spring 2004.
  4. ^ a b c d Chung, Emily (July 8, 2015). "New 'Wendiceratops' named for legendary Alberta dinosaur hunter Wendy Sloboda". CBC News.
  5. ^ Anderson, Ian (24 September 1987). Fetal fragments suggest warm-blooded dinosaurs. p. 25. ISSN 0262-4079. {{cite book}}: |work= ignored (help)
  6. ^ John Acorn (7 February 2007). Deep Alberta: Fossil Facts and Dinosaur Digs. University of Alberta. p. 49. ISBN 978-0-88864-481-7.
  7. ^ "Canadian student finds dinosaur remains". The Free Lance-Star. Associated Press. August 20, 1990. p. 15.
  8. ^ Harris-Lovett, Sasha (July 8, 2015). "Meet Wendiceratops, a horned dinosaur unlike any other". Los Angeles Times.
  9. ^ Amery, Richard (December 8, 2009). "Fossil talk at Cafe Galt". L.A. Beat. Retrieved July 10, 2015.
  10. ^ Lowey, Mark (August 8, 1992). "Bone booty in the badlands". Calgary Herald. p. A1., reprinted in "This day in Alberta history: August 8, 1992 – Bone booty in the badlands". Calgary Herald. August 8, 2012. Retrieved 11 July 2015.
  11. ^ Currie, Philip J.; Jacobsen, Aase Roland (1995). "An azhdarchid pterosaur eaten by a velociraptorine theropod" (PDF). Canadian Journal of Earth Sciences. 32 (7): 922–925. Bibcode:1995CaJES..32..922C. doi:10.1139/e95-077.
  12. ^ Sturgess, Kylie (April 3, 2013). "Getting Into Pterosaur Trouble – An Interview With Daniel Loxton". csicop.org. Committee for Skeptical Inquiry.
  13. ^ Currie, Philip J. (2005). "History of Research". In Philip J. Currie; Eva Bundgaard Koppelhus (eds.). Dinosaur Provincial Park: A Spectacular Ancient Ecosystem Revealed. Indiana University Press. pp. 3–33. ISBN 0-253-34595-2.
  14. ^ Zelenitsky, D. K.; Therrien, F.; Joyce, W. G.; Brinkman, D. B. (2008). "First fossil gravid turtle provides insight into the evolution of reproductive traits in turtles". Biology Letters. 4 (6): 715–718. doi:10.1098/rsbl.2008.0395. PMC 2614164. PMID 18755656. We thank Wendy Sloboda for the discovery and preparation of the specimens.
  15. ^ Graveland, Bill (August 28, 2008). "Fossilized pregnant turtle unveiled". The Toronto Star.
  16. ^ Zelenitsky, Darla K.; Sloboda, Wendy J. (2005). "Eggshells". In Philip J. Currie; Eva Bundgaard Koppelhus (eds.). Dinosaur Provincial Park: A Spectacular Ancient Ecosystem Revealed. Indiana University Press. pp. 398–404. ISBN 0-253-34595-2.
  17. ^ Coria, R. A.; Currie, P. J.; Eberth, D.; Garrido, A. (2002). "Bird footprints from the Anacleto Formation (Late Cretaceous) in Neuquén Province, Argentina". Ameghiniana. 39: 1–11.
  18. ^ Evans, David C.; Ryan, Michael J. (2015). "Cranial Anatomy of Wendiceratops pinhornensis gen. et sp. nov., a Centrosaurine Ceratopsid (Dinosauria: Ornithischia) from the Oldman Formation (Campanian), Alberta, Canada, and the Evolution of Ceratopsid Nasal Ornamentation". PLOS ONE. 10 (7): e0130007. Bibcode:2015PLoSO..1030007E. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0130007. PMC 4496092. PMID 26154293.
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