Monmouth HS grad digs rocks and bones

Will study dinosaurs this summer at Field Museum of Natural history in Chicago

Sunday, May 29, 2005

By CAROL CLARK

The Register-Mail

MONMOUTH - Holly Berg, a student at the University of Iowa, will have her mind buried in the past this summer as she studies dinosaurs at the Field Museum of Natural History in Chicago.

The subjects of that study, ceratopsians, lived 65 to 70 million years ago.

Berg, daughter of Jane Berg, Monmouth, and Tom Berg, Berwick, is a 2002 Monmouth High School graduate. She will be a senior at the University of Iowa this fall majoring in geology with a minor in biology. She will also receive a Museum Studies Certificate.

Holly worked as a Register-Mail carrier during grade school and junior high school and in circulation at the Monmouth and Galesburg Register-Mail offices while in high school. Her mother Jane works in the display advertising department at The Register-Mail.

"I received an internship through the Field Museum of Natural History," Berg said. "They get about 60 applicants every year. But you must have a letter of recommendation from a staff member to be considered."

Berg knew just the right person to help get a letter of recommendation - her research professor, Dr. Chris Brochu. It was through Brochu she met Dr. Peter Makovicky of the Field Museum. Makovicky submitted a letter of recommendation for Berg to work at the museum this summer.

Brochu worked on Sue, a tyrannosaurus rex, before moving to Iowa. Berg is working on an honor thesis under Brochu.

As part of her project, she will try and determine why the male species of some birds are bigger while the female in other species are bigger.

"Birds are related to dinosaurs and we hope to learn why certain things have changed and developed in birds," she said. "We are hoping to figure out what behaviors are correlated and then look into the behavior of dinosaurs."

Makovicky, Berg said, has a collection of dinosaur skulls and she will be using a high powered microscope called a Scan Electron Microscopy to look for the finest detail on the skulls such as where muscles were attached.

Specifically, she will be looking for wear patterns on the jaws to determine how the animals were able to open and close their mouths, what they ate and how they ate.

Berg hopes to write and publish one or two papers about her research this summer.

She also is writing two papers on research she conducted at the university on how certain sizes of birds of prey seem to be related to certain behaviors.

"That's a big something because no one has ever done that before," she said.

Berg leaves Monday for Chicago and will be there 12 weeks. She will receive a stipend for her work, which she said will cover the costs of her housing.

Berg serves as president of the Geology Honors Society, Sigma Gamma Epsilon at the University of Iowa. She also works at the paleontology repository and hopes to be the under grad representative for her department to serve as a liaison between students and faculty this fall.

Berg received the Bill Vosper Award at the U of I for exemplary undergraduate student in the Department of Geology. She hopes to pursue a master's degree at Iowa, and then a Ph.D. She plans on teaching at the college level after obtaining her degrees and continuing her research.

Berg credits her love of geology to her high school teacher, Gerald Vicare.

"After one class with Mr. Vicare, I knew it was geology for me," she said. "He was a great teacher."