- Rationale: Paleontology is the study of past life. This course provides an overview of paleontological principles and reconstructed history of life developed using those principles. As with many other areas of geology, paleontology sits at the interface between disciplines, in this case biology and geology. In the first module of this course, we develop the basic idea of paleontological techniques. This includes major topics such as taphonomy, systematics, functional morphology. This module would also include aspects of Paleontology that contributes to the understanding of Earth Systems history such as biostratigraphy, paleobiogeography, paleoenvironmental reconstruction. In the second module of the course, the above techniques are used to reconstruct the history of life through time. This includes major events such as the origin of life, major mass extinctions, radiations, evolution of groups.
- Principles of Paleontological studies: Nature of fossil record, Growth and form, Population and species, Systematics, Evolutionary morphology, Evolutionary rates and trends, Diversification & Extinction, Paleoecology, Paleobiogeography.
- History of life through time: Precambrian events, Phanerozoic events
Prerequisite: Mineralogy and Geochemistry (ES3101), Basic knowledge of programming, Classical mechanics
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