Aims of the course:
- To show how fossils record the evolution of life.
- To provide an understanding of what fossils are, to explain how they are formed and recruited to the sedimentary rock record.
- To explain the bias of the fossil record and why it presented such a problem to Darwin in the development of the theory of evolution.
- To demonstrate how the fossil record is sampled and interpreted today.
- To provide an overview of the potential of the fossil record to provide significant new information about the evolutionary history of life.
Course content overview:
This course investigates the nature of the fossil record, how it is formed and how it can be read as a sample of life's evolutionary history over the last 3.5 billion years and more.
The course begins with a brief histocial background, setting the discovery and initial interpretation of fossils in a historical, cultural and scientific background. From these beginnings, the course outlines how the modern interpretation of fossils as the remains of once living organisms emerged. However, the discovery of the biased and fragmentary nature of the fossil record presented a considerable problem to Darwin. The course explains the nature of these problems and shows how they were subsequently overcome. It provides a very broad outline of the history of life's evolultion and extinction as understood today, looks at the future potential of the fossil record and discusses some remaining problems of interpretation. Finally, there is a brief introduction to finding fossils, how to prepare and identify them.
Schedule (this course is completed entirely online):
Orientation Week : 30 May-5 June 2016
Teaching Weeks: 6 June-10 July 2016
Feedback Week: 11-17 July 2016
Each week of an online course is roughly equivalent to 2-3 hours of classroom time. On top of this, participants should expect to spend roughly 2-3 hours reading material, etc., although this will vary from person to person.
While they have a specific start and end date and will follow a weekly schedule (for example, week 1 will cover topic A, week 2 will cover topic B), our tutor-led online courses are designed to be flexible and as such would normally not require participants to be online for a specific day of the week or time of the day (although some tutors may try to schedule times where participants can be online together for web seminars, which will be recorded so that those who are unable to be online at certain times are able to access material).
Unless otherwise stated, all course material will be posted on the Virtual Learning Environment (VLE) so that they can be accessed at any time throughout the duration of the course and interaction with your tutor and fellow participants will take place through a variety of different ways which will allow for both synchronous and asynchronous learning (discussion boards,etc).
A Certificate of Participation will be awarded to participants who contribute constructively to weekly discussions and exercises/assignments for the duration of the course.
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