SUBJECT
Title
Paleobiology
Type of instruction
lecture
Level
master
Faculty
Part of degree program
Credits
2
Recommended in
Semester 1
Typically offered in
Autumn semester
Course description
- Fossilization of organic and inorganic material. Processes and products. Taphonomy.
- Trace fossils: fossil behaviour.
- Biostratigraphy: subdivision, correlation, and dating of sedimentary rocks by fossils.
- Paleoecology: environments and adaptations of the past. Ecological niches and the succession of organisms filling them.
- Paleobiogeography: distribution of organisms on Earth, recent and past.
- Evolution on micro- and macroscale.
- Paleobiological events and processes: the first evidence for life; origin of protists and metazoans; history of the mineral skeleton.
- Fossillagerstätten: exceptional prservation in the fossil record.
Readings
Prothero, D.R. (2003): Bringing Fossils to Life: An Introduction to Paleobiology. 2nd edition. McGrawHill, Boston, 512 p.