EASC 310: Paleontology
| Credits: | 3 |
Pre-requisites: | EASC 210; lower div. W course and/or FAL |
Lecture (hrs/week): | 2 |
| Terms: | Fall |
Co-requisites: | BISC 102 |
Lab (hrs/week): | 2 |
| Note: | Students with credt for EASC 203 may not take EASC 310 for extra credit | ||||
| Instructors: | MacEachern, Dashtgard | ||||
| Course Notes: | |||||
Description:
EASC 310 is an introduction to paleontology, tracing the evolution of life based on evidence from the fossil record. The course will concentrate on invertebrate fossil groups and the various morphological criteria necessary for their identification. In addition, the course will consider the principles of preservation, classification and paleoecological interpretation, in relation to the main fossil groups important to geology. Lectures will provide the necessary theoretical framework. Laboratory work will focus on examining fossil collections and analytical techniques.
Course Topics- Introduction to paleontology, principles of preservation, morphological elements of the main invertebrate fossil groups and their classification (this will comprise the bulk of the course).
- A brief summary of the early Earth and the origin of life, evolution of eukaryotes, origin of metazoans, significance of the Burgess shale.
- The early vertebrates, leaving the water, amphibians and reptiles, the dinosaurs, the evolution of flight, Cenozoic vertebrates.
- Use of paleontological data, adaptation and functional morphology, biostratigraphy, paleoecology, biogeography.
- Analysis of organisms’ adaptive abilities to better suit their environment; the influence of plate tectonics and paleoclimates on the evolution of life; mass extinction events.
Bringing Fossils to Life: An Introduction to Paleobiology, Donald Prothero, 2nd Edition.