Special Topics in Earth and Planetary Science (390-0-05)

Topic

Paleobiology

Instructors

Rosemary Tolbert Bush

Meeting Info

Technological Institute F391: Tues, Thurs 12:30PM - 1:50PM

Overview of class

Paleobiology: Fossils record the 3.8 billion year history of life on Earth, and extinct organisms make up 99% of all the species that ever lived. The fossil record reveals insights into evolutionary processes and the distributions and structures of organisms and ecosystems that cannot be observed by studying living organisms. This course is an introduction to the concepts of paleobiology: the nature of fossils, evolutionary trends and adaptations, systematics, paleoecology, and biogeography. We will investigate how life, from individual organisms to whole biomes, has changed over time; the geologic processes that lead to the burial and preservation of organic material; and the scientific methods by which we infer the biological processes that occurred across deep time from the limited and often biased fossil record. Course has prerequisites.

Registration Requirements

Registration is reserved for undergraduates with at least one credit of either EARTH 201 or EARTH 203, graduate students, or undergraduates who have the consent of the instructor.

Class Materials (Required)

Introduction to Paleobiology and the Fossil Record, 2nd Edition Benton, M.J. and D.A.T. Harper. 2020. Wiley-Blackwell. ISBN: 9781119272854