CLASS SCHEDULE & LECTURE NOTES

Week I (Jan. 26-30)

• Jan. 26 Discussion: Introductions; Policy Review; Overview of Syllabus; Icebreakers
• 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 2 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 1 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. 5-6 (Covers 1/28 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)

• May 12 Discussion: Team Project Workshopping
• 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.

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Last modified: 9 January 2026