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GEOL 326 - PALEONTOLOGY, PALEOECOLOGY AND PALEOENVIRONMENTS |
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 paleoecological principles. Following this, the course is split into two sections. First, there is an overview of the major depositional environments, the typical fossil organisms that are found preserved in them, the process of fossilization, and how the ecosystems of particular environments have changed through time. This is followed by a survey of the history of 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. 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 |