This past week the first official Fellows meeting was held over Zoom, a consequence of the global Coronavirus pandemic that will uniquely affect all of our projects this coming summer and year. The Fellows Leadership Lab, hosted by Mrs. Carsley, explained the needs and requirement of the Fellows program, as well as guided us through the beginning stages of not only our project, but this very website.
Going into this program, my project was just a hazy idea in my mind, but during the lab I was able to articulate a proper explanation of what I was trying to do, formulating a "pitch" that can be read on the home page of this site. The most important thing I need to do as of now to truly begin my project to narrow down my scope to a group that I want to focus on. While in an ideal world I could create some grand catalog of all known dinosaur species, or even genus, there is too much uncertainty. Too much uncertainty in phylogeny and speculation in species, as well as constant debates over the very existence of entire genus. Lists on different sites, blogs, and books are complicated, and the amount of genus within dinosauria might range between several hundred into the thousands. So my first step is to choose a subsection, a clade, within. One large enough to be worth such a project, and yet small enough to be manageable within a year. My greatest concern, as of now, is not related to the information gathering but to the art works I hope to include within the book. I have little experience drawing animals and have a limited understanding of both non-mammalian anatomy and paleo art as a whole. Why I am confident I will be able to improve in the time I study, I am concerned that I will be be able produce the quantity I may expect, while maintaining their quality. However, if necessary, this can be addressed by further narrowing the scope of my project and therefore the amount of drawings. We shall see in the fall, when I start the artworks and anatomical studies.
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AuthorJulia Youssef Archives
April 2021
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