Earth and Planetary Sciences/ EPSC 334 INVERTEBRATE PALEONTOLOGY

Course-related announcements will be posted here and on WebCT.
Our FIRST meeting is on TUESDAY January 4. We need to decide if a Monday or a Wednesday afternoon laboratory will accommodate the majority of students planning to take this course. The needs of students graduating from the EPS program will have priority.

Teaching team:
Lecturer: Jeanne Paquette
Office: FDA Rm 214.
e-mail: jeannep@eps.mcgill.ca
Teaching assistants
Karine Bibeau
e-mail: k2@eps.mcgill.ca
Zhenzhen Huang
e-mail: zzhuang@eps.mcgill.ca


 
Course objectives:
i) understand the nature (biases) of the fossil record
ii) learn the major milestones of the evolutionary history of invertebrates
iii) identify the main groups of invertebrate fossils in hand specimen (laboratory)


 
Schedule:
Lectures
Monday, Wednesday

11:30 am - 12:30 pm.

FDA, Room 211
Laboratory

(study of invertebrate fossils)

to be decided during the first week of classes

Mon. or Wed.: 2:30 - 5:00 pm. 

Redpath Museum

Room 106B or FDA Rm 211


 
Evaluation (all dates to be confirmed once the scheduling of the laboratory exercises is settled)
Class tests (mid-February, mid-March)
total 30% (10 and  20% each respectively)
Weekly laboratory reports (nine in total)
25% (2.5% each)
Laboratory test (week before last of term)
20%
Final Exam (not cumulative)
25%
Supplemental exam available: term marks reduced to 25%, exam counts for 75%

Class notes and lecture slides are made available through WebCT as downloadable, printable pdf documents. Your ID number and PIN to Minerva should work on WebCT.

Reference books (most will be on 2-hr reserve at Schulich Science & Engineering Library):

There is no required textbook.The course content is based mostly on the reference material listed below. If you want a text that will outlast the lecture notes, Clarkson's "Invertebrate Paleontology and Evolution" (now in its 4th edition) is highly recommended.

E.N.K. Clarkson, 1998, Invertebrate Paleontology and Evolution.  Blackwell Science. 

OWEN, R., 1995. History of Life. Blackwell Scientific Publications.

STEARN, C.W. and CARROLL, R.L., 1989, Paleontology: the record of life. John Wiley and Sons, N.Y.

BOARDMAN, R.S., CHEETHAM, A.H. and ROWELL, A.J., 1987. Fossil Invertebrates. Blackwell.

LANE, N.G., 1986. Life of the past. 2nd ed. Merrill Publishing Company.

LEVIN, H.L. 1998, Ancient Invertebrates and Their Living Relatives. Prentice-Hall.

STANLEY, S.M., 1998. Earth System History. Freeman.

Dates will be specified once we schedule the laboratory exercises.


 
TOPICS OUTLINE
                    LABORATORIES 


 
1. Fossils: formation, preservation, bias of record.

2. Biostratigraphy. 
3. Origin, diversification (body plans) of earliest animals. 
4. Early & middle Paleozoic reef builders

0. Schedule the laboratory. 

1. Fossilization 

2. Microfossils 
3. Stromatolites/Poriferans

First class test (10%)
4. Corals & Bryozoans 
5. Paleozoic benthos (I): trilobites

6. Paleozoic benthos (II): brachiopods.

7. Rise of modern benthos: bivalves, gastropods

8. Predation in Mesozoic seas (I): cephalopods

9. Predation in Mesozoic seas (II): echinoderms

5. Trilobites 

6. Brachiopods 

7. Bivalves 

8. Cephalopods

10. Second class test (20%)
9. Review 
11. Nearly vertebrates: carpoids, conodonts, graptolites.

12. Paleogeography & ichnology.

13. Mechanisms of evolution and extinction

10. Lab test 

11. Echinoderms

Final exam: during final exam period (25%)