GE 330: Paleontology

Lecture Schedule

Syllabus and course syllabus (pdf version).

Lectures

September 4 Introduction to Paleontology and Paleobiology.

September 6 The Rock Cycle.

• The rock cycle link is actually pretty good for an animated look at the rock cycle and basic geological processes associated with the rock cycle.

September 11 Paleontology and the beginnings of historical geology.

September 13 Taphonomy

• A brief introduction to taphonomy
• Experimental Taphonomy at Bristol
• Derek Briggs research projects. The preeminent taphonomist, now at Yale.

September 18 Geochronology .

• Dendrochronology.
• International Commission on Stratigraphy. This is the official source for dates and names of the various time and time-rock units in stratigraphy. Also good for hardcopy of the current geological timescale.

September 20 Ichnology: the study of trace fossils This is in active and important area of current research in the Paleoecology.

• Introduction to Ichnology at Emory University.
• Ichnology research Group at the University of Alberta led by George Pemberton. He is great.

September 25 Sequence Stratigraphy. Stratigraphy is the practical science concerned with the development and use this relative timescale. [Galli lecture]

October 2 The Archaean

• Biomarkers in the Archaean. Roger Summons Lab at MIT.

October 4 The Proterozoic

October 5-8 Field Trip to Nova Scotia

October 9 The Ediacaran System

October 11 The Cambrian revolution

October 16 Life in the Early Paleozoic. Life in the eperic oceans. The first Paleozoic glaciation. Origin and development of reefs. The Paleozoic fauna and invertebrate diversity. Continental drift.

October 23 Early life on land. Origin of plants and the transition of life from onto dry land. The early tracheophytes - The Rhynie chert. The origin of trees (Gilboa forest) and the great swamps of the Carboniferous. Pangea.

October 25 Vertebrate Evolution I. Vertebrate origins. Jawless fishes. The early amphibians. Some classic vertebrate morphology. Analogy and homology in evolution.

October 30 Vertebrate Evolution II. Dinosaurs, birds and all that.

November 1 Mesozoic Life.Triassic/Jurassic Basins of the north east and "astro" stratigraphy.

November 6 Origin of Angiosperms. A mystery that eluded Darwin himself is introduced (along with some basic Paleobotany).

November 8 The Tertiary System John Phillips, William Smith & Lyell. Tertiary deposits in Central North America. Oxygen isotopes and sea water temperatures.

November 13 QUIZ #2
The Pleistocene Fossils of the Ice Age are reviewed and discussed in the light of climatic change models.

Paleobiology

November 15 Diversity Curves. This is an aspect of Paleobiology that is concerned with large-scale trends (macroevolution) in groups of organisms through time. Extinction has been widely studied over the past 20 years and most paleontologists now consider this an important component of the evolutionary process on Earth.

November 20 Molecular Paleontology. We look at the increasingly important role played by biomarkers and the chemistry of fossilized organic matter.

November 22 Thanksgiving Holiday

November 27 Marine Ecosystems through Time. This lecture examines the rather new notion that ocean chemistry has changed through time and how this has affected Earth systems and the evoloution of marine ecosystems.

November 29 Introduction to Paleoclimatology. Changes in O₂ and CO₂ throughout Earth history have had (and are having) profound effects on all life on Earth. We review the geological evidence that documents these changes over time and discuss the impact they have had on evolution of life and Earth systems.

December 4 Paleontology and Evolution . Major features of evolution that are manifest through the study of the fossil record. Origins at the kingdom level.

December 6 The Gaia Hypothesis. The evolution of life on earth is an intimate interplay between environmental factors and biological one. This lecture is a brief glimpse into the concepts that concern this aspect of Earth systems and paleonotology. Course Review.

Thursday December 13 Final Exam, 9 am.

WWW Resources

Major Museums

• The Field Museum in Chicago. They own Sue.
• The American Museum of Natural History in New York.
• The Peabody Museum at Yale.
• University of California Museum of Paleontology at Berkeley. They have a useful portal site.
• The Palaeontology Department at the Natural History Museum in London. Formerly the British Museum of Natural History.

update 11 August 2007.