35109 - Palaeontology

Learning outcomes

At the end of the course, students should be able to establish relationships between tempo and mode of the biological evolution. They should also acquire basic elements for a chronology of the biological and geological events. Students should also: i) properly use the geological time scale in the frame of a evolutionary perspective; ii) evaluate potential and limits of the fossil record for reconstructing past events and environments.

Course contents

The history of life on Earth is written in rocks, and it takes a palaeontologist to decipher it. In this course we will see how and why fossils were formed and summarise the history of palaeontology. Palaeontology addresses how the origin and evolution of life is intricately linked with the geological history of the Earth. Through the fossil record you will explore topics such as evolutionary diversity, exceptional preservation and palaeoclimates, patterns of evolution and extinction, the importance of exceptional fossil assemblages, and the relationship between ecology and evolution.

Specifically, the nature and organ of fossils. Relationships between the record of the biological evolution and sedimentary processes: sedimentation rates, time averaging and the use of fossils in the reconstruction of time and mode of the biological evolution. Species and speciation models; name-bearing types. The fossil record of the early life. Ediacara. The Cambrian "revolution" and the Burgess Shale-type fauna. Mass extinctions: causes and consequences. Icnofossils. Fossils in the construction of the geological time scale and correlations: biozones and their relationships with other tools for dating the geological past. Fossil markers. Fossil bioconstructions.

Readings/Bibliography

PDF of the lectures will be available during the course.

Suggested books for further readings:

Manuale di Paleontologia, a cura della Società Paleontologia Italiana, Ed. Idelson-Gnocchi, 2020

Società Paleontologia Italiana, Manuale di Paleontologia, Ed. Idelson-Gnocchi, 2020

M.J. Benton, D.A.T. Harper, Introduction to Paleobiology and the Fossil Record, Wiley-Blackwell, 2012

H.T. Torsvik e L.R. Cocks, Earth history and palaeogeography, Cambridge University Press, 2017

Teaching methods

Conventional lectures, seminars, lectures/exercises at the museum and in the field

Assessment methods

Written and oral examination.

Teaching tools

Conventional lessons, field class

Office hours

See the website of Barbara Cavalazzi