Dinosaur Planet
Important Notice
This course is not active. Please contact Department Chair for more information.
Overview
- The fossil record: what it is, how it is interpreted, and how taphonomic processes influence
- Geologic time, uniformitarian thinking, and global processes: plate tectonics and global change.
- Classification, systematics, and organic evolution: old and new viewpoints.
- Defining the Dinosaur: characteristics that identify an organism. Why ichthyosaurs are not dinosaurs.
- The major groups of dinosaurs: Saurischia and Ornithischia, and subgroups. Old and new interpretations of appearance in life, physiology (warm or cold blooded), and behaviour.
- The origins of dinosaurs and the groups they replaced: how the dinosaurs competed successfully and became dominant on Earth.
- Dinosaur evolution and adaptive radiations throughout the Mesozoic (Triassic, Jurassic and Cretaceous periods).
- The Mesozoic non-dinosaurs: other animals that were present and how they interacted with dinosaurs.
- Dinosaurs, feathers, and the rise of birds: how it is possible that some dinosaurs are still extant, flying all around us.
- Dinosaur extinction (aside from the birds): summary of the hypotheses available, with special attention to the Chicxulub crater and the impact hypothesis. How such an event could happen in the future, and how it might affect humans.
- How dinosaur extinction affected the evolution of mammals. Human evolution if dinosaurs had not become extinct.
- Evolutionary speculation: How their descendants might look, if the dinosaurs had not become extinct.
- Lecture
- Laboratory with practical exercises
- Videos
- Internet searches
Mid-term exam | 20% |
Lab assignment | 40% |
Paper/diagnosis of species | 10% |
Final exam | 30% |
Upon completion of the course the student will be able to:
- Name and define the major groups and sub-groups of dinosaurs, and describe their evolutionary relationships.
- Describe the Mesozoic paleoenvironments, and the ecological roles played by dinosaurs.
- Recognize representative dinosaur bones and teeth.
- Discuss how the study of dinosaurs illustrates the procedures of science and use of uniformitarian perspective.
- Explain how scientists infer dinosaur behaviour from fossil remains such as bones and trackways.
Textbooks and Materials to be Purchased by Students
Fastovsky, D. E., and Weishampel, D. B., The Evolution and Extinction of Dinosaurs, latest edition, Cambridge University Press.
Requisites
Prerequisites
No prerequisite courses.
Corequisites
No corequisite courses.
Equivalencies
No equivalent courses.
Course Guidelines
Course Guidelines for previous years are viewable by selecting the version desired. If you took this course and do not see a listing for the starting semester / year of the course, consider the previous version as the applicable version.
Course Transfers
These are for current course guidelines only. For a full list of archived courses please see https://www.bctransferguide.ca
Institution | Transfer Details for GEOL 1130 | |
---|---|---|
There are no applicable transfer credits for this course. |