Catalog Entries |
Fall 2013
May 01,2024 |
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| GEOL 326 - PALEONTOLOGY, PALEOECOLOGY AND PALEOENVIRONMENTS |
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This is an interdisciplinary course in which students use paleontology and sedimentology to interpret ancient environments and the ecosystems they supported. Students begin with a brief review of aspects of geology required for paleontological studies: geologic time, plate tectonics, and sedimentary rocks and their depositional environments. There is also a review of evolutionary theory and ecological and paleonecological principles. Following this, the course is split into two sections. First, there is an overview of the major depositional environments, the typcial fossil organisms that are found preserved in them, the process of fossilization, and how the ecosystems of partricular environments have changed through time. This is followed by a survey of the history of life, with case studies in which we examine several important fossiliferous units in both marine and terrestrial settings, and use paleontological (biological) and sedimentological (geological) data to reconstruct the paleoecology and ancient physical environment. Lab sessions include fossil identification and analysis and several field visits to sites in New Jersey, Pennsylvania and Connecticut.
This course fulfills the upper-level Geology requirement for the Environmental Science major. It may also be used as an elective in the Biology and Environmental Studies majors and Environmental Science minor. It counts towards the Earth Science teaching certificate. It is a Writing Intensive course, and has a lab. Lab Fee.
0.000 TO 4.000 Credit hours 0.000 TO 4.000 Lecture hours Levels: Undergraduate Schedule Types: Lab, Lecture All Sections for this Course Environmental Science Department Course Attributes: WRITING INTENSIVE |
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