CLASS SCHEDULE & LECTURE NOTES
Week I (Jan. 26-30)
Jan. 26 Discussion: Introductions; Policy Review; Overview of Syllabus; Icebreakers(University is closed due to weather: no Discussion section this week)- Jan. 27 Lecture: "Into the Darkness of Prehistory: Our Long Quest for Origins"
- Jan. 29 Lecture: "Bringing Fossils to Life: Paleobiology and the Methods of Science"
Week II (Feb. 2-Feb. 6)
- Feb. 2 Discussion: What are Scientific Papers, and How Do We Read Them?; Homework 1 due
- Feb. 3 Lecture: "Pages in the Book of Time: The Geologic Record"
- Feb. 5 Lecture: "Clocks in the Rocks: Reading Geologic Time"
Week III (Feb. 9-13)
- Feb. 9 Discussion: The Scale of Geologic Time in-class activity; Homework 2 due
- Feb. 10 Lecture: "Bones in the Stones & Shells in the Shales: Fossils and Fossilization"
- Feb. 12 Lecture: "'What is It?': Identifying Fossils and the Nature of Species"
Week IV (Feb. 16-20)
- Feb. 16 Discussion: Platform Presentations overview; Guide to making PowerPoints; Homework 3 due
- Feb. 17 Lecture: "Descent with Modification: Natural Selection & the Fossil Record"
- Feb. 19 Lecture: Tempo & Mode: Macroevolution & the Fossil Record
Week V (Feb. 23-27)
- Feb. 23 Discussion: Midterm I Review, part 1; Homework 4 due
- Feb. 24 Lecture: "The Tree of Life: Reconstructing the Patterns of Evolution"
- Feb. 26 Lecture: "Climate Emergencies Past & Present: The PETM and the Anthropocene Contrasted"
Week VI (Mar. 2-6)
- Mar. 2 Discussion: Midterm I Review, part 2; Homework 5 due
- Mar. 3 Lecture: "Awful Changes: Mass Extinctions"
- Mar. 5 Lecture: "First Impressions to Shell Games: The Garden of Ediacara & The Cambrian Explosion"
- ONLINE MIDTERM EXAM I Mar. 4-5 (Covers 1/27 to 2/26)
Week VII (Mar. 9-13)
- Mar. 9 Discussion: Presentations Part I; Final Presentation PowerPoints due for all students
- Mar. 10 Lecture: Under Paleozoic Waves: Marine Evolution & Extinctions in the Paleozoic Era
- Mar. 12 Lecture: "Land Ho! The Conquest(s) of Land"
Spring Break Week (Mar. 17-21)
Week VIII (Mar. 23-27)
- Mar. 23 Discussion: Presentations Part II
- Mar. 24 Lecture: "The Great Dying: The Permo-Triassic Mass Extinction"
- Mar. 26 Lecture: "'Fearfully Great Lizards': The Rise of the Dinosaurs"
Week IX (Mar. 30-Apr. 2)
- Mar. 30 Discussion: Presentations Part III; Homework 6 due
- Mar. 31 Lecture: "'Behold the Mighty Dinosaur': Gigantism, Ontogeny, and Dinosaur Paleoecology"
- Apr. 2 Lecture: "Feathered Dragons: Dinosaurs and the Origin of Birds"
Week X (Apr. 6-10)
- Apr. 6 Discussion: Details of Team Project; Midterm II Review, Part 1; Homework 7 due
- Apr. 7 Lecture: "In the Shadow of the Dinosaurs: Flowers, Insects, Mammals, and the Cretaceous Terrestrial Revolution"
- Apr. 9 Lecture: "Earth's Worst Day Ever: The Cretaceous/Paleogene Mass Extinction"
Week XI (Apr. 13-17)
- Apr. 13 Discussion: Midterm II Review, Part 2; Homework 8 due
- ONLINE MIDTERM EXAM II Apr. 14-15 (Covers 3/4 to 4/10)
- Apr. 14 Lecture: "Home of the Range: Mammalian Diversification in the Late Cenozoic"
- Apr. 16 Lecture: "The Scatterlings of Africa: The Origins of Humanity"
Week XII (Apr. 20-24)
- Apr. 20 Discussion: Paleontology and the "Grey Literature"
- Apr. 21 Lecture: "Last Man Standing: The Rise of Homo sapiens"
- Apr. 23 Lecture: "Out of Eden: The Spread of Homo sapiens"
Week XIII (Apr. 27-May 1)
- Apr. 27 Discussion: Team Project Workshopping; Midterm III Review, part 1; Smithsonian Field Trip Report due
- Apr. 28 Lecture: "The Call of Distant Mammoths: The Pleistocene Megafaunal Extinctions"
- Apr. 30 Lecture: "The Sixth Extinction: The Holocene Extinctions & Modern Defaunations"
Week XIV (May 4-8)
- May 4 Discussion: Midterm III Review, part 2; Homework 9 due
- May 5 Lecture: "The Earth After Us: The Fossil Record of the Anthropocene and Beyond"
- May 7 Lecture: "What Good is the Fossil Record? The Public and the Prehistoric Past"
- ONLINE MIDTERM EXAM III May 7-8 (Covers 4/14 to 5/7)
Final Exam Week (May 11-15)
- TUESDAY May 12 10:30 am-12:30 pm TWS 0320: TEAM PROJECT SHOWCASE
For a formatted printable copy of the complete syllabus, click here.