GEOL 204 The Fossil Record Lectures

GEOL 204 Dinosaurs, Early Humans, Ancestors & Evolution:
The Fossil Record of Vanished Worlds of the Prehistoric Past

Spring Semester 2025

Close up of the Thermopolis specimen of the Jurassic primitive feathered dinosaur Archaeopteryx

CLASS SCHEDULE & LECTURE NOTES

Week I (Jan. 27-31)

Jan. 27 Discussion: Introductions; Policy Review; Overview of Syllabus; Icebreakers
Jan. 28 Lecture: "Into the Darkness of Prehistory: Our Long Quest for Origins"
Jan. 30 Lecture: "Clocks in the Rocks: The Geologic Record & Geologic Time"

Week II (Feb. 3-Feb. 7)

Feb. 3 Discussion: The Scale of Geologic Time in-class activity; Homework 1 due
Feb. 4 Lecture: "Bones in the Stones & Shells in the Shales: Fossils and Fossilization"
Feb. 6 Lecture: "Bringing Fossils to Life: Paleobiology and the Methods of Science"

Week III (Feb. 10-14)

Feb. 10 Discussion: What are Scientific Papers, and How Do We Read Them?; Homework 2 due
Feb. 11 Lecture: "'What is It?': Identifying Fossils and the Nature of Species"
Feb. 13 Lecture: "Descent with Modification: Natural Selection & the Fossil Record"

Week IV (Feb. 17-21)

Feb. 17 Discussion: Platform Presentations overview; Guide to making PowerPoints; Homework 3 due
Feb. 18 Lecture: Tempo & Mode: Macroevolution & the Fossil Record
Feb. 20 Lecture: "The Tree of Life: Reconstructing the Patterns of Evolution"

Week V (Feb. 24-28)

Feb. 24 Discussion: Midterm I Review, part 1; Homework 4 due
Feb. 25 Lecture: "Climate Emergencies Past & Present: The PETM and the Anthropocene Contrasted"
Feb. 27 Lecture: "Awful Changes: Mass Extinctions"

Week VI (Mar. 3-7)

Mar. 3 Discussion: Midterm I Review, part 2; Homework 5 due
Mar. 4 Lecture: "First Impressions to Shell Games: The Garden of Ediacara & The Cambrian Explosion"
ONLINE MIDTERM EXAM I Mar. 4-5 (Covers 1/28 to 2/27)
Mar. 6 Lecture: Under Paleozoic Waves: Marine Evolution & Extinctions in the Paleozoic Era

Week VII (Mar. 10-13)

Mar. 10 Discussion: Presentations Part I; Final Presentation PowerPoints due for all students
Mar. 11 Lecture: "Land Ho! The Conquest(s) of Land"
Mar. 13 Lecture: "The Great Dying: The Permo-Triassic Mass Extinction"

Spring Break Week (Mar. 17-21)

Week VIII (Mar. 24-28)

Mar. 24 Discussion: Presentations Part II
Mar. 25 Lecture: "'Fearfully Great Lizards': The Rise of the Dinosaurs"
Mar. 27 Lecture: "'Behold the Mighty Dinosaur': Gigantism, Ontogeny, and Dinosaur Paleoecology"

Week IX (Mar. 31-Apr. 4)

Mar. 31 Discussion: Presentations Part III; Homework 6 due
Apr. 1 Lecture: "In the Court of the Tyrant Kings: Paleobiology of the Tyrannosaurs"
Apr. 3 Lecture: "Feathered Dragons: Dinosaurs and the Origin of Birds"

Week X (Apr. 7-11)

Apr. 7 Discussion: Details of Team Project; Midterm II Review, Part 1; Homework 7 due
Apr. 8 Lecture: "In the Shadow of the Dinosaurs: Flowers, Insects, Mammals, and the Cretaceous Terrestrial Revolution"
Apr. 10 Lecture: "Earth's Worst Day Ever: The Cretaceous/Paleogene Mass Extinction"

Week XI (Apr. 14-18)

Apr. 14 Discussion: Midterm II Review, Part 2; Homework 8 due
Apr. 15 Lecture: "Drawing Out Leviathan: The Origins of Whales"
ONLINE MIDTERM EXAM II Apr. 16-17 (Covers 3/4 to 4/10)
Apr. 17 Lecture: "Home of the Range: Mammalian Diversification in the Late Cenozoic"

Week XII (Apr. 21-25)

Apr. 21 Discussion: Paleontology and the "Grey Literature"
Apr. 22 Lecture: "The Scatterlings of Africa: The Origins of Humanity"
Apr. 24 Lecture: "Last Man Standing: The Rise of Homo sapiens"

Week XIII (Apr. 28-May 2)

Apr. 28 Discussion: Team Project Workshopping; Midterm III Review, part 1; Smithsonian Field Trip Report due
Apr. 29 Lecture: "Out of Eden: The Spread of Homo sapiens"
May 1 Lecture: "The Call of Distant Mammoths: The Pleistocene Megafaunal Extinctions"

Week XIV (May 5-9)

May 5 Discussion: Midterm III Review, part 2; Homework 9 due
May 6 Lecture: "The Sixth Extinction: The Holocene Extinctions & Modern Defaunations"
May 8 Lecture: "The Earth After Us: The Fossil Record of the Anthropocene and Beyond"
ONLINE MIDTERM EXAM III May 8-9 (Covers 4/15 to 5/8)

Week XV (May 12-16)

May 12 Discussion: Team Project Workshopping
May 13 Lecture: "What Good is the Fossil Record? The Public and the Prehistoric Past"
May 16 10:30 am-12:30 pm TWS 0320: TEAM PROJECT SHOWCASE

For a formatted printable copy of the complete syllabus, click here.

To the main syllabus

Last modified: 17 January 2025

Mass death assemblage of the Ordovician trilobite Dikelokephalina