CLASS SCHEDULE & LECTURE NOTES

Week I (Jan. 24-26)

• Jan. 25 Lecture: "Into the Darkness of Prehistory: Our Long Quest for Origins"

Week II (Jan. 29-Feb. 2)

• Jan. 29 Discussion: Introductions; Policy Review; Overview of Syllabus; Icebreakers
• Jan. 30 Lecture: "Clocks in the Rocks: The Geologic Record & Geologic Time"
• Feb. 1 Lecture: "Bones in the Stones & Shells in the Shales: Fossils and Fossilization"

Week III (Feb. 5-9)

• Feb. 5 Discussion: The Scale of Geologic Time in-class activity; Homework 1 due
• Feb. 6 Lecture: "Bringing Fossils to Life: Paleobiology and the Methods of Science"
• Feb. 8 Lecture: "'What is It?': Identifying Fossils and the Nature of Species"

Week IV (Feb. 12-16)

• Feb. 12 Discussion: What are Scientific Papers, and How Do We Read Them?; Homework 2 due
• Feb. 13 Lecture: "Descent with Modification: Natural Selection & the Fossil Record"
• Feb. 15 Lecture: "The Tree of Life: Reconstructing the Patterns of Evolution"

Week V (Feb. 19-23)

• Feb. 19 Discussion: Platform Presentations overview; Guide to making PowerPoints; Homework 3 due
• Feb. 20 Lecture: "Climate Emergencies Past & Present: The PETM and the Anthropocene Contrasted"
• Feb. 22 Lecture: "Awful Changes: Mass Extinctions"

Week VI (Feb. 26-Mar. 2)

• Feb. 26 Discussion: Midterm I Review; Homework 4 due
• Feb. 27 Lecture: "First Impressions: The Garden of Ediacara"
• ONLINE MIDTERM EXAM I Feb. 28-29 (Covers 1/25 to 2/22)
• Feb. 29 Lecture: "Shell Games: The Cambrian Explosion"

Week VII (Mar. 4-8)

• Mar. 4 Discussion: Presentations Part I; Final Presentation PowerPoints due for all students
• Mar. 5 Lecture: "Shells, Fins, and Reef Madness: Under Paleozoic Waves"
• Mar. 7 Lecture: "Land Ho! The Conquest(s) of Land"

Week VIII (Mar. 11-15)

• Mar. 11 Discussion: Presentations Part II; Homework 5 due
• Mar. 12 Lecture: "The Great Dying: The Permo-Triassic Mass Extinction"
• Mar. 14 Lecture: "'Fearfully Great Lizards': The Rise of the Dinosaurs"

Spring Break Week (Mar. 17-24)

Week IX (Mar. 25-29)

• Mar. 25 Discussion: Presentations Part III
• Mar. 26 Lecture: "'Behold the Mighty Dinosaur': Gigantism, Ontogeny, and Dinosaur Paleoecology"
• Mar. 28 Lecture: "In the Court of the Tyrant Kings: Paleobiology of the Tyrannosaurs"

Week X (Apr. 1-5)

• Apr. 1 Discussion: Details of Team Project; Midterm II Review, Part 1; Homework 6 due
• Apr. 2 Lecture: "Feathered Dragons: Dinosaurs and the Origin of Birds"
• Apr. 4 Lecture: "In the Shadow of the Dinosaurs: Flowers, Insects, Mammals, and the Cretaceous Terrestrial Revolution"

Week XI (Apr. 8-12)

• Apr. 8 Discussion: Midterm II Review, Part 2
• Apr. 9 Lecture: "Earth's Worst Day Ever: The Cretaceous/Paleogene Mass Extinction"
• ONLINE MIDTERM EXAM II Apr. 10-11 (Covers 2/27 to 4/2)
• Apr. 11 Lecture: "Drawing Out Leviathan: The Origins of Whales"

Week XII (Apr. 15-19)

• Apr. 15 Discussion: Paleontology and the "Grey Literature"
• Apr. 16 Lecture: "Home of the Range: Mammalian Diversification in the Late Cenozoic"
• Apr. 18 Lecture: "The Scatterlings of Africa: The Origins of Humanity"

Week XIII (Apr. 22-26)

• Apr. 22 Discussion: Team Project Workshopping; Homework 7 due; Smithsonian Field Trip Report due
• Apr. 23 Lecture: "Last Man Standing: The Rise of Homo sapiens"
• Apr. 25 Lecture: "Out of Eden: The Spread of Homo sapiens"

Week XIV (Apr. 29-May 3)

• Apr. 29 Discussion: Team Project Workshopping; Midterm III Review, part 1 Homework 8 due
• Apr. 30 Lecture: "The Call of Distant Mammoths: The Pleistocene Megafaunal Extinctions"
• May 2 Lecture: "The Sixth Extinction: The Holocene Extinctions & Modern Defaunations"

Week XV (May 6-9)

• May 6 Discussion: Midterm III Review, part 2
• May 7 Lecture: "The Earth After Us: The Fossil Record of the Anthropocene and Beyond"
• ONLINE MIDTERM EXAM III May 8-9 (Covers 4/4 to 5/2)
• May 9 Lecture: "What Good is the Fossil Record? The Public and the Prehistoric Past"

Final Exam Season

• May 13 8-10 am TWS 0320: TEAM PROJECT SHOWCASE

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

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Last modified: 1 April 2024