Clint Boyd Ph.D. student North Carolina State University Department of Marine, Earth, Atmospheric Sciences Chair:  Dr. Julia Clarke CoChair: Dr. Mary Schweitzer

My research is centered upon examining the specimen of Thescelosaurus neglectus at the North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences known as Willo. This specimen will be used to produce a more thorough description of the species, as it is the first specimen to preserve a complete cranium. A second basal ornithopod specimen from the Hell Creek Formation of Montana, possibly a new species, is also being investigating. The data collected from these specimens and from examination of other basal ornithischians will allow previously proposed taxonomic characters for basal ornithopods to be reevaluated and new characters investigated. A cladistic analysis will then be run using this new character matrix in order to investigate the evolutionary history of basal ornithopods.