Course Syllabus
34061 Fall, 2016
Invertebrate Paleontology Sections
001 & 002
A KSU Writing Intensive Course
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Instructor: Dr. A.J. Smith alisonjs@kent.edu |
Class Hours: TR 12:30-1:45 p.m. in McGilvrey 234 |
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Office: 219 McGilvrey Hall Phone (330) 672-3709 voicemail goes to email |
Lab Hours: Section 001 Wednesday 2:15-3:55 pm, McGilvrey 331 Section 002 Friday 11 a.m.-12:40 pm, McGilvrey 331 |
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Field Trip Saturday, October 15th to Caesar's Creek State Park, OH |
Final Exam Friday Dec 16th, 12:45-3 pm in our classroom |
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Office Hrs T 2-3:30pm, W 9:30-11 am, Thurs 2-4pm or by appointment |
Course Web Page: |
Two Required Texts:
Benton, M.J. and Harper, D.A.T., 2009. Introduction to Paleobiology and the Fossil Record, Wiley-Blackwell, Singapore. ISBN # 978-1-4051-4157-4 Available on Amazon for $59.64 in paperback (used from $45.50, and for Kindle, about $48). This textbook has a companion website and its a good one!
ALSO,
Lane, Nicholas, 2010. Life Ascending: The Ten Great Inventions of Evolution, Norton & Co., Publishers, ISBN -13: 978-0393338669 OR ISBN-10: 0393338665. Available through Amazon as a paperback ($11.60), used paperback (~$6), or kindle download ($9.99).
Course Syllabus
****Abbreviations Used in Chapter Readings Column of This Syllabus****
BH = Benton & Harper
L= Nick Lane
Week
Date Lecture Topic
Essay Due Dates
Chapter Readings and Links
1
08/30 T Introduction, Assumptions & Principles Labs
Start This Week
BH-Chapter 1
R Concept of Deep Time, Biozones & Index Fossils
BH-Chapter 2
& Appendix 1, and
L-get
started!
2 09/06
T Fossil Preservation & Environment BH-Chapter 3
R Species & Evolution: Mechanisms and Models for Change BH-Chapter
5
3
09/13 T Natural Selection: The role of the Individual
Submit
Topic & 4 Refs L-Read
thru Chapter 2
R
Selection:
The role of the gene
BH-Chapter 6
4 09/20 T Selection: The role of species & communities L-keep reading up through Chapter 3
R Early Earth Conditions Origins of Life (Major Working Hypotheses) & Early Metabolic Diversity BH-Chapter 8 AND READ ET delivery of Prebiotic Molecules Those Jack Hill zircons Archean Metabolisms
5 09/27 T Precambrian Rock Record
R Precambrian Ore Deposits, Oxygen, & Early Metabolic Plans - Read Oklo Reactors Deep Thermophiles Soup and a Sandwich Submit Outline & 8 Refs
6 10/04 T First In-Class Book Discussion of Lane's "Life Ascending" bring your book and be ready to discuss the first 3 chapters
R Late Precambrian Fossil Record: Vendian Life-Ediacaran Fauna BH-Chapter 10 and
Read Loki-archaeota-the missing link and Co-Evolution of Ediacaran oceans and animals
7 10/ 11 T Mid-Term Exam covering class material & readings thru Thursday, October 6th
R Burgess Shale & Chengjiang Fauna The Gang's All Here visit the Hooper Virtual Museum
| Saturday October 15th All Day Field Trip Caesar’s Creek State Park |
8 10/18 T Early Paleozoic Tectonic Changes and Consequences BH-Chapter 4 and L Chapters 4 and 5
Great Ordovician Biodiversity Event (GOBE)
R Invasion of the Land: Paleozoic Transitions Read Trees and Ocean Anoxia
9 10/25 T Late Paleozoic Paleoecology & Assemblages Read Carboniferous Oxygen Levels Rise and Permian Oxygen Levels Fall and BH-7
Submit Working Draft of Intro/Background/Methods (and your refs so far!)
R Permian-Triassic Extinctions-Hypotheses and the stratigraphic record
10 11/01 T Second In-Class Book Discussion of Lane's "Life Ascending" - bring your book and be ready to discuss Chapters 4 and 5
R Permo-Triassic Recovery BH-Chapter 4 Read the summary article here about the video-lecture (link below)
Video Lecture by Beauchamp & Grasby-Permian - Triassic Mayhem: Lead-up, Catastrophe and Aftermath of Largest Mass Extinction...
| Note: November 6th is the last day to withdraw from courses in the Fall semester |
11 11/08 T Jurassic Reefs and Marine Ecological Succession BH-Chapter 20 and
Chen & Benton, 2012 Timing & pattern of biotic recovery following end-Permian mass extinction
and L-Chapter 6
R Trends in Mesozoic Shelf Environments Triassic-Jurassic Extinction Event Eruption of the "CAMP" and the Triassic/Jurassic Extinction
Latest Chronology of the Triassic/Jurassic Extinction
12 11/15 T Cretaceous Extinctions & Recovery
Submit Working Draft of Results/Discussion (and your refs so far!)
R Early Cenozoic Paleoecology, Eocene as Modern Analog
read:
The
Azolla Story-Eocene Climate Change
and
Methane and Global Warming and and L Chapters 7-8
13
11/22 T Last In-Class Book Discussion
of Lane's "Life Ascending": bring your book and be ready to discuss chapters
6-8
R Thanksgiving Holiday - No Class get some sleep
14 11/29 T Pliocene -another modern analog? Plio-Pleistocene Transition Glacial-Interglacial Cycles
R Late Cenozoic Global
Change-Pleistocene Younger Dryas
and
Abrupt Climate Change
Submit
Final Essay w/ conclusion
(and refs!)
15
12/06 T Late Cenozoic Global Change - Pleistocene-Holocene
Transition solar
irradiance and climate forcing and
El Niño
R Holocene Global Change assigned reading:
Warming and Sea level
Rise
12/15 Final Exam: Friday
December 16th 12:45-3 pm in our classroom