The Grand American Western Museum Ankylosaur Tour

Hi, my name is João Russo, and I'm a Ph.D. student at the NOVA School of Sciences and Technology in Lisbon, Portugal. I'm researching the evolution of ankylosaur dinosaurs, known for the heavily armored bodies and weaponized tails, focusing on Late Jurassic and basal Cretaceous forms. While most ankylosaurs are well-known worldwide in the Cretaceous, earlier occurrences are rare, and their evolutionary relationships are poorly known. Only a handful of specimens are known from the Late Jurassic, and most come from the 150 million-year-old rocks of the Morrison Formation of Western USA. Portugal is the only place outside North America where we find skeletons of ankylosaurs from this age. I'm currently studying a new specimen, which is the most complete articulated ankylosaur from the Jurassic anywhere in the world. A detailed anatomical analysis of the new Portuguese specimen and comparison with North American ones will shed light on an unclear yet crucial time of the evolution of ankylosaurs, when the group was on the verge of becoming a significant component in terrestrial ecosystems globally, until the very end of the Cretaceous period.

My research results depend on the quality of the data acquired, such as collected from detailed first-hand observation of specimens in museum collections worldwide. Some of the most important collections are housed in American museums, namely the Denver Museum of Nature and Science (DMNS), the Museum of Western Colorado (MWC) in Grand Junction, the Prehistoric Museum (PMUSU) in Price, Utah, Brigham Young University's Paleontological Museum (BYUPM) in Provo, Utah, and the Natural History Museum of Utah (NHMU) in Salt Lake City. Unfortunately, due to the traveling restrictions imposed on all of us because of the pandemic, this data collection was impossible to perform.. Thus, my research has been severely affected, and potential results are based on limited sampling and scope, impacting the quality of the research, and ultimately, my academic career. With the Ph.D. grant ending and the project's deadline approaching, it is vital to use the remaining time to collect as much information as possible. Another result will be the observation of several ankylosaur specimens that have been described years ago and not revisited in detail since. This will help increase our knowledge of American ankylosaurs, especially important considering the global relevance of the North American ankylosaur record.

This fundraising initiative is aimed at helping me achieve a major goal of the project, traveling to American museums and collecting as much data as possible from Late Jurassic and basal Cretaceous ankylosaurs. The funds will be used for plane tickets between the US and Portugal, travelling within the US, lodging and food. The estimated duration between departing Lisbon and returning is 40 days, approximately five weeks, from the last week of August through September. The first week will be spent in Denver to research the collections of the DMNS. From there, by train, to Grand Junction, where I'll spend the second week at the MWC. The third week will be spent in Price, at the PMUSU. The following week I'll be travelling to other Utah museums in the Salt Lake area, such as BYU and NHMU. The last week of September, on the way back from the American West, I'll stop by the AMNH, in New York, to observe some more ankylosaur specimens, before returning to Lisbon. The plane tickets will make up approximately 50% of the total estimated expenses for this endeavor. To help me accomplish this, I'll also have the invaluable help of American friends and colleagues, some of which are already collaborators in this research.

I hope you can help me achieve what could be a very important scientific contribution to Paleontology and in the understanding of one branch of the tree of life and the history of Earth.