Aims
This course aims to:
• show how fossils become preserved, sometimes in exquisite detail
• provide an overview of major events in the history of life
• give you the opportunity for hands-on study of real fossils in the teaching room
• provide you with sufficient basic understanding of the topic to enable you to develop your interest in future
Content
This course is a wide-ranging look at evolution and the history of life, using evidence from the fossil record. Fossils may form in a variety of ways and sometimes soft tissues can be preserved in surprising detail. Exciting finds continue to be made, and new methods of investigation, such as the use of medical imaging techniques, can reveal aspects of ancient life previously unavailable. We will see how fossils and the rocks that contain them can be used to reconstruct not only the organisms themselves but the environments they lived in, and how these changed through time.
The course will provide you with an overview of major events in the history of life, such as the Cambrian Explosion, when many different groups of animals make their first appearance in the fossil record about 540 million years ago. Another aspect covered will be mass extinctions and their causes. For example, why did an estimated 95% of marine species die out at the end of the Permian Period, 252 million years ago? Did a meteorite really wipe out the dinosaurs, ammonites and many other groups at the end of the Cretaceous Period, 66 million years ago?
There will be a chance to study some real fossils on display in the teaching room, and questions will be encouraged throughout. We will finish by briefly discussing current threats to biodiversity and how life might evolve in the future.
Presentation of the course
The course will be taught with PowerPoint slides and with real fossils on display in the teaching room. Questions and discussion will be encouraged throughout.
Course sessions
1. How fossils become preserved and the nature of the fossil record.
2. Some evidence of evolution; the earliest history of life, the puzzling Ediacaran Fauna and the Cambrian Explosion.
3. Animal evolution in the Palaeozoic Era, the rise of plants and the mass extinction 252 million years ago.
4. Life in the Mesozoic: dinosaurs, ammonites and other groups. End of an Era by meteorite impact?
5. Ups and downs in the last 66 million years. Mammoths, woolly rhinos and hominids. What next?
Learning outcomes
You are expected to gain from this series of classroom sessions a greater understanding of the subject and of the core issues and arguments central to the course.
The learning outcomes for this course are:
• to gain an understanding of how fossils are formed, and how evidence from fossils and the rocks containing them can be used to reconstruct ancient organisms and the environments
they lived in
• to give an outline of major events in the evolution of life, as shown by the fossil record
• to discuss the nature and significance of extinction in the history of life, especially mass extinctions and their probable causes
