Ichnology

Ichnology is the branch of geology and biology that deals with traces of organismal behavior, such as burrows and footprints. It is generally considered as a branch of paleontology; however, only one division of ichnology, paleoichnology, deals with trace fossils, while neoichnology is the study of modern traces. Parallels can often be drawn between modern traces and trace fossils, helping scientists to decode the possible behavior and anatomy of the trace-making organisms even if no body fossils can be found. An ichnologist is a scientist whose area of study and research is ichnology.

Overview

Ichnologic studies are based on the discovery and analysis of biogenic structures: features caused by living organisms. Thus, burrows, trackways, trails and borings are all examples of biogenic structures, but not casts or molds of dead shells or other bodily remains. To keep body and trace fossils nomenclatorially separate, ichnospecies are erected for trace fossils. Ichnotaxa are classified somewhat differently in zoological nomenclature than taxa based on body fossils (see trace fossil classification for more information).

State university system

A state university system in the United States is a group of public universities supported by an individual state, or a similar entity such as the District of Columbia. These systems constitute the majority of public-funded universities in the country. Each state supports at least one such system.

State university systems should not be confused with federally funded colleges and universities, at which attendance is limited to military personnel and government employees. Members of foreign militaries and governments also attend some schools. These schools include the United States military academies, Naval Postgraduate School, and military staff colleges.

A state university system normally means a single legal entity and administration, but may consist of several institutions, each with its own identity as a university. Some states—such as California and Texas—support more than one such system.

State universities get subsidies from their states. The amount of the subsidy varies from university to university and state to state, but the effect is to lower tuition costs below that of private universities for students from that state or district. As more and more Americans attend college, and private tuition rates increase well beyond the rate of inflation, admission to state universities is becoming more and more competitive.

Utah State University

The Utah State University (USU) is a public research university in Logan, Utah. Founded in 1888 as Utah's agricultural college, USU focused on agriculture, domestic arts, and mechanic arts. The university now offers programs in liberal arts, engineering, business, economics, natural resource sciences, as well as nationally ranked elementary & secondary education programs. The university has eight colleges and offers a total of 176 bachelor's degrees, 97 master's degrees, and 38 doctoral degrees. It is a land-grant and space-grant institution accredited by the Northwest Commission on Colleges and Universities.

USU's main campus is located in Logan with regional campuses in Brigham City, Tooele, and the Uintah Basin. In 2010, the College of Eastern Utah, located in Price, Utah joined the USU system becoming Utah State University College of Eastern Utah (USU Eastern). Throughout Utah, USU operates more than 20 distance education centers. Regional campuses, USU Eastern, and distance education centers provide degrees to more than 40% of the students enrolled. In total, USU has more than 180,000 alumni in all 50 states and more than 100 countries.

Uintah Basin

The Uintah Basin, also spelled Uinta Basin, is a physiographic section of the larger Colorado Plateaus province, which in turn is part of the larger Intermontane Plateaus physiographic division. It is also a geologic structural basin in eastern Utah, east of the Wasatch Mountains and south of the Uinta Mountains. The Uintah Basin is fed by creeks and rivers flowing south from the Uinta Mountains. Many of the principal rivers (Strawberry River, Currant Creek, Rock Creek, Lake Fork River, and Uinta River) flow into the Duchesne River which feeds the Green River—a tributary of the Colorado River. The Uinta Mountains forms the northern border of the Uintah Basin. They contain the highest point in Utah, Kings Peak, with a summit 13,528 feet (4123 metres) above sea level. The climate of the Uintah Basin is semi-arid, with occasionally severe winter cold.

History

Father Escalante's expedition visited the Uintah Basin in September 1776. The Northern Ute Indian Reservation was established in 1861 by presidential decree. The United States opened the reservation for homesteading by non-Native Americans in 1905. During the early decades of the twentieth century, both Native and non-Native irrigation systems were constructed—the Uinta Indian Irrigation Project, the Moon Lake Project, and the Central Utah Project.

Vernal, Utah

Vernal, the county seat and largest city in Uintah County, is located in northeastern Utah about 175 miles (280 km) east of Salt Lake City and 20 miles (32 km) west of the Colorado border. As of the 2010 census, the city population was 9,089. The population has since grown to 10,844 as of the 2014 population estimate.

History

Vernal, unlike most Utah towns, was not settled by Mormons. Brigham Young sent a scouting party to Uintah Basin in 1861 and received word back the area was good for nothing but nomad purposes, hunting grounds for Indians and "to hold the world together." That same year, President Abraham Lincoln set the area aside as the Uintah Indian Reservation, with Captain Pardon Dodds appointed Indian agent. Dodds later built the first cabin by a white man in the Uinta Basin about 1868. Settlers began to filter in after that and build cabins in various spots on or near Ashley Creek. In 1879 many came close to perishing in the famous "Hard Winter" of that year.

Geography