astronomy

Wendy Sloboda

Wendy Sloboda is a astronomy topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand Wendy Sloboda rather than just read about it. In short: Wendy J. Sloboda (born 1968) is a Canadian fossil hunter from Warner, Alberta.

Key takeaways

Wendy Sloboda belongs to astronomy; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect Wendy Sloboda to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of Wendy Sloboda from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

Wendy J. Sloboda (born 1968) 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. 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.

Biography

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. She enrolled at the University of Lethbridge in 1989 and in the summer of 1990, discovered a hadrosaur skeleton. She worked for 16 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. She earned B.A. in history from the University of Lethbridge in 2001. Paleontologist David Evans, of the Royal Ontario Museum calls Sloboda "basically a legend in Alberta. She's probably one of the best dinosaur hunters in the world." Her discoveries include the first pterosaur bonebed in North America, and a pterosaur leg showing evidence of predation by a small dinosaur that inspired author Daniel Loxton's 2013 book Pterosaur Trouble. Sloboda has made numerous discoveries in Alberta's Dinosaur Provincial Park, including fossil skulls of Corythosaurus, ankylosaurs (including Euoplocephalus) and crocodilians. In 1999, she discovered and prepared the first known fossils of a gravid (egg-containing) turtle. 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. 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 Currie, Alberto Garrido, and David Eberth, who honored Sloboda by naming it Barrosopus slobodai, which translates as "Sloboda's muddy foot". In 2010, Sloboda discovered a rock containing a bone fragment in Southern Alberta, between the Milk River and the Canada-US border. 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. In celebration of having a genus named after her, Sloboda had a drawing of the dinosaur and its scientific name tattooed on her arm.

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

External links "The Dinosaur Hunter", interview with Sloboda on Deutsche Welle's Tomorrow Today science magazine program episode 2017-07-28

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Wendy Sloboda

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Wendy Sloboda claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In astronomy, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to Wendy Sloboda before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about Wendy Sloboda ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of Wendy Sloboda

In research: Wendy Sloboda appears in astronomy research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses Wendy Sloboda in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: Wendy Sloboda is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics 1960s births, Amateur paleontologists, Canadian paleontologists, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Wendy Sloboda outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

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How to study Wendy Sloboda in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what Wendy Sloboda means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain Wendy Sloboda out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is Wendy Sloboda in simple terms?

Wendy J. Sloboda (born 1968) is a Canadian fossil hunter from Warner, Alberta.

Why does Wendy Sloboda matter?

Because it connects several astronomy ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study Wendy Sloboda?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on Wendy Sloboda.