PALEONTOLOGY GEOS 308/EEB 308

 

Karl W. Flessa                                             Teaching assistants:                   

Gould-Simpson 309                                         Deb Balch GS322, dbalch@geo.arizona.edu

   621-7336 kflessa@geo.arizona.edu                  Jana VanAlstine GS346 janava@geo.arizona.edu

Office hours: TuTh 11-12 or by appt

 

            Why learn about fossils?  Some more-or-less practical reasons: (1) Fossils can reveal when, and how fast, organisms appeared, evolved, and became extinct; (2) Fossils are reliable indicators of the age of sedimentary rocks; and (3) Fossils are indicators of past environments.  Non-practical reasons include the pleasure of discovery, reconstructing the life of the past, and impressing your family and friends by being able to critique the entire Jurassic Park series.

The lecture part of this course will cover the principles of paleontology, the basic morphology and geological significance of important fossil groups, the use of fossils in dating and in deciphering ancient environments, and the major features of evolution as seen in the fossil record.

            The laboratory part of the course will illustrate the concepts discussed in lecture, introduce you to important groups of fossils, provide field experience in collecting and analyzing fossils, and develop research and writing skills.

            There is a REQUIRED FIELD TRIP  in this course.  The field trip is scheduled for all day Saturday, November 16 and will go to some outcrops between Bisbee and Douglas in order to map the distribution of environments in a Cretaceous reef.  Mark this date on your calendar now!  This trip will form the basis of a lab report that will constitute 20% of your lab grade.

 

BOOKS AND SUCH.  There is no required text.  The last few texts that I used were deemed to be pretty useless by the students in the class, so I’m trying a year without a text.  I will make class notes available via the web, assign readings that will be available via the web, and the lab manual will be available via the web.  You will need access to the web and a printer for this course.

Optional texts: You may find used copies of other paleontology texts around and you might find

 some of interest and use.  Here are seven pretty good ones:

Benton, M.J. and Harper, D.A.T., 1997.  Basic Palaeontology,  Longman.  Last year’s text.

Boardman, R.S., Cheetham, A.H., and Rowell, A.J., eds., 1987. Fossil Invertebrates.            Blackwell.  Excruciating detail.

Clarkson, E.N.K., 1986.  Invertebrate Paleontology and Evolution, 2nd ed., Allen & Unwin.  Another classic textbook from the U.K.

Cowen, R., 2000.  History of Life, 3nd ed.  Blackwell.  Breezy, informal, and terrible limericks.

Levin, H. J., 1999.  Ancient Invertebrates and Their Living Relatives.  Prentice Hall. Low level.

Prothero, D.R., 1998.  Bringing Fossils to Life.  An Introduction to Paleontology.  WCB McGraw-Hill.   Text from two years ago; proved unpopular.

Stearn, C. and Carroll, R., 1989.  Paleontology: The Record of Life.  John Wiley & Sons.

 Traditional and conservative approach

 

LECTURE SCHEDULE AND READINGS

                                   

 Date                  Lecture topic                                        Reading

 

Aug 27              The usual introductory stuff

Aug 29              Taphonomy and preservation                          

LAB:    No labs this week

 

Sept 3             Taphonomy and preservation                                                    Assigned reading #1

Sept 5              Taphonomy &Trace fossils                              

LAB:    Fossilization, taphonomy & traces

 

Sept 10            Variation                                                         

Sept 12            Taxonomy and systematics                                                        Assigned reading #2    

LAB:    Classification & systematics

 

Sept 17            Taxonomy and systematics 

Sept 19            Interpreting fossils

LAB:    Mollusks                                                                    

 

Sept 24            Interpreting fossils                                            

Sept 26            Diversity of marine life                          

LAB:    Brachiopods                                                                

 

Oct 1               FIRST EXAM

Oct 3              The diversity of marine life                                

LAB:    Echinoderms                                                                

 

Oct 8               Life on land                              Deadline for signing up for paper topic                  

Oct 10             Vertebrates                                                      

LAB:    Arthropods                                                                  

 

Oct 15             Dinosaurs I                                                                               Assigned reading #3

Oct 17                         Dinosaurs II                             

LAB:    Vertebrate anatomy and DinoSpeed

 

Oct 22             Dinosaurs III

Oct 24                         How old?  Direct-dating of fossils                                            

LAB:    Fossils in the field – 3 hr  lab! – local field trip

 

Oct 29                         GSA Denver – NO class                                                       Assigned reading #4

Oct 31            How old? Biostratigraphy of sedimentary rocks            

LAB:    Graphic correlation

 

Nov 5              SECOND EXAM                                                      

Nov 7              Paleoecology   

LAB:    Corals and reefs                                                          

 

Nov 12                        Paleoecology

Nov 14                       Paleoecology                                                                            Assigned reading #5

FIELD TRIP, SATURDAY NOV 16, CRETACEOUS REEF

 

Nov 19            Conservation paleobiology & historical ecology             Assigned reading #6

Nov 21            Microevolution                                     Review and analysis paper due

LAB:    Analysis of field trip results

 

Nov 26            Macroevolution

Nov 28            Thanksgiving – no class

Lab:                No labs

 

Dec 3               Extinction I                                                                               Assigned reading #7

Dec 5               Extinction II     

LAB: Optional lab: analysis of field trip results

 

Dec 10            Creationism and the fossil record (last day of class)                    Assigned reading #8

                                                                                                Field trip reports due in class

                                                                                   

Dec 17 (Tuesday), 8-10 AM.  FINAL EXAM

 

Assigned readings:

  1. Destructive taphonomic processes and skeletal durability, by C.E. Brett,  pp. 223-226 in Briggs, D.E. and Crowther, P.R., eds., 1990, Palaeobiology: A synthesis.  Blackwell.
  2. Bully for Brontosaurus.  P. 79-103 in Gould, S.J., 1991.  Bully for Brontosaurus. W.W. Norton
  3. Dinosaur endothermy: Some like it hot.  Chapter 14 (pp.325-356) in Fastovsky, D.E. and Weishampel, D.B., 1996.  The Evolution and Extinction of Dinosaurs.  Cambridge University Press.
  4. Biostratigraphy:  pp. 24-27 in Benton, M.J. and Harper, D.A.T., 1997.  Basic Palaeontology,  Longman.
  5. Lower Cretaceous coral-alagal-rudist patch reefs in southeastern Arizona, by Schreiber, J.F., Jr., and Scott., R.W., pp. 280-292 in Davis, G.H. and Vandendolder, eds., 1987.  Geologic Diversity of Arizona and its margins: Excursions to Choice Areas.   Arizona Bureau of Geology and Mineral Technology, Geological Survey Branch Special Paper 5.
  6. Flessa, K.W., 2002.  Conservation paleobiology.  American Paleontologist, 10 (1): 2-5.
  7. Impact of K-T boundary events on marine life, by R. D. Norris and  Impact of K-T boundary events on terrestrial life, by J.A. Wolfe and D.A. Russell, pp. 229-234 in  Briggs, D.E. and Crowther, P.R., eds., 2001, Palaeobiology II. Blackwell.
  8. Evolution as fact and theory, pp.  253-262 in Gould, S.J., 1983 Hen’s Teeth and Horse’s Toes.  Norton

 

 

REVIEW AND ANALYSIS PAPER

            This paper is to be a review and analysis of one of the articles from the following list.  You must choose your article by Oct. 8.   No more than three people may work on the same one, so picking an article early is the best way to get one that you want.  All of the articles are probably available in the Science-Engineering Library (if you really can't find it, ask me, I may have a copy), but they are not on reserve.  Pick several to look at--based on the titles--then choose the one that interests you the most.  Don't assume that shorter articles are easier than longer ones.  Sign up for your chosen article on --  or before, if you want to get your first choice  -- Oct 8.

            Your review and analysis paper should include (1) a summary (about one page) of the article's contents--in your own words, of course, (2) a discussion of the evidence and principal conclusions (does the evidence support the conclusions, is this the only conclusion that the evidence points to, do you agree--why or why not?), and (3) a brief discussion of at least one important unresolved issue that deserves additional research.  Your review and analysis paper must not exceed four double-spaced pages in length, and it must be typed.

           

Choose one by Oct. 8; your paper is due Nov. 21.

 

  1. Farlow, J.O., 1981.  Estimates of dinosaur speed from a new trackway site in Texas.  Nature 294: 747-748.

2.       Flessa, K.W., 1998.  Well-traveled cockles: Shell transport during the Holocene transgression of the southern North Sea.  Geology, v. 26: 187-190.

3.       Hayward, J.L., Zelenitsky, D.K., Smith, D.L., Zaft, D.M. and Clayburn, J.K., 2000.  Eggshell taphonomy at modern gull colonies and a dinosaur clutch site.  Palaios, v. 15: 343-355

4.       Kowalewski, M., Dulai, A., and Fürsich, F.T., 1998.  A fossil record full of holes: The Phanerozoic history of drilling predation.  Geology, v. 26: 1084-1089.

5.       Larson, P.L. 1994.  Tyrannosaurus sex.  in  Rosenberg, G.D. and Wolberg, D.L., eds., DinoFest.  Paleontological Society Special Publication No. 7, pp. 139-155.

6.       Purton, L.M.A. and Brasier, M.D., 1999.  Giant protist Nummulites and its Eocene environment: Life span and habitat insights from  18O and  13C data from Nummulites and Venericardia, Hampshire basin, U.K.  Geology, v. 27: 711-714.

7.       Rigby, J.K., Jr., Newman, K.R., Smit, J., van der Kaars, W.A., Sloan, R.E. and Rigby, J.K., 1987.  Dinosaurs from the Paleocene part of the Hell Creek Formation, McCone County, Montana.  Palaios, v. 2:  296-302.

8.       Norell, M.A., Clark, J.M., Chiappe, L.M. and Dashzeveg, D., 1995.  A nesting dinosaur.  Nature 378: 774-776.

9.       Sheehan, P.M., Fastovsky, D.E., Barreto, C., and Hoffmann, R.G., 2000.  Dinosaur abundance was not declining in a “3 m gap” at the top of the Hell Creek Formation, Montana and North Dakota.  Geology, v. 28: 523-526.

10.   Smith, D.M., 2000.  Beetle taphonomy in a recent ephemeral lake, southeastern Arizona.  Palaios, v. 15: 152-160.

11.   Speyer, S.E. and Brett, C.E., 1985.  Clustered trilobite assemblages in the Middle Devonian

      Hamilton Group.  Lethaia, v. 18: 85-103.

12.   Miller, A.I. and others., 1992.  Effect of Hurricane Hugo on molluscan skeletal distributions, Salt

            River Bay, St. Croix, U.S. Virgin Islands. Geology, v. 20: 23-26.

13.   Miller, M.F., McDowell, T., Smail, S.E., Shyr, Y. and Kemp, N.R., 2002.  Hardly used habitats: Dearth and distribution of burrowing in Paleozoic and Mezozoic stream and lake deposits.  Geology 30: 527-530.

14.   Hagadorn, J.W., Dott, R.H., Jr. and Damrow, D., 2002.  Stranded on a Late Cambrian shoreline: Medusae from central Wisconsin.  Geology 30: 147-150.

15.   Kowalewski, M., Simoes, M.G., Carroll, and Rodland, D.L., 2002.  Abundant brachiopods on a tropical, upwelling-influenced shelf (southeast Brazilian Bight, South Atlantic).  Palaios 17: 277-286.

16.   Karim, T., and Westrop, S.R., 2002.  Taphonomy and paleoecology of Ordovician trilobite clusters, Bromide Formation, south-central Oklahoma.  Palaios 17: 394-403.

17.   Rodland, D.L. and Bottjer, D.J., 2001.  Biotic recovery from the end-Permian mass extinction: Behavior of the inarticulate brachiopod Lingula as a disaster taxon.  Palaios 16: 95-101.

18.   Park, L.E. and Downing, K.F., 2001.  Paleoecology of an exceptionally preserved arthropod fauna from lake deposits of the Miocene Barstow Formation, southern California, USA.  Palaios 16: 175-184.

 

GRADES

            The course grade is based on two hour exams (each worth 100 points),  the final exam (150 points),  the review paper (50 points) and the lab grade (150 points).  The final exam will be semi-cumulative, that is, it will emphasize the last third of the course.

 

Extra credit is available.  There are at least three opportunities for extra credit that can earn you up to an additional 55 points (10%)

1.       A new mnemonic device for remembering the Phanerozoic periods of the geologic time scale.  Five points.  Due Sept 3.

2.       A new mnemonic device for remembering the epochs of the Cenozoic.  Five points.  Due Sept. 3.

3.       A 5 minute, max of five powerpoints, in-class presentation on a fossil adopted from the following list (only one species per customer, please). Microsolena texana, Hallucigenia, Archaeopteryx, Triarthrus eatoni, Diplocraterion yoyo, Platyceras, Nipponites mirabilis, Australopithecus afarensis, Eoanthropus dawsoni, Smilodon fatalis, Tullimonstrum gregarium, Lepidodendron, Ozarkodina typica, Ambulocetus, Hyracotherium, Herrarasaurus, Eubrontes, Fusulina, Ophiomorpha, Uintacrinus, Unitatherium. [more species available on request].  The presentation should provide a complete classification of the fossil, information on its composition, mode of life, habitat, geologic range, evolutionary or other significance, and at least four references, no more than two of which can be websites.  Presentations can begin as early as October 22, but with no more than two per class period, not everyone may be able to make a presentation.  Reserve your fossil and class period early! (25 points)

4.       A two-page research proposal on some aspect of paleontology, due in class, Dec. 5.  You should identify a significant issue that can be resolved through the analysis of paleontological data, indicate how you would collect and analyze the data, and what the possible significance of your results might be.  The report should include at least five citations to the published literature (no websites). (25 points)

 

IMPORTANT DATES:

Sept. 3                          Extra credits #1 and #2 due

Oct. 1                           First exam

Oct 8                            Sign up for paper topic

Oct 22                          Extra credits #3 begin

Nov 5                           Second exam

Nov 16 (Sat.)                Field trip to Cretaceous reef

Nov. 21                                    Review and analysis paper due

Dec 5                           Extra credit # 4 due

Dec. 10                                    Field trip reports due in class

Dec. 17 (Tues.)             Final exam, 8:00 AM - 10:00 AM


 

OTHER IMPORTANT STUFF

            I expect you to be aware of and adhere to the University of Arizona's Code of Academic Integrity.  If you do not have a copy of this code, you may pick one up in the Dean's Office or consult it at http://catalog.arizona.edu/policies/974/acacode.htm.  Among other things, this means that you may not represent someone else's work as your own.  Cheating, copying and/or paraphrasing from the work of others is a violation of the Code.

            You are responsible for all material covered in class.  This includes any announcements of changes in the class schedule or class requirements.  I usually make such announcements at the beginning of lecture, so arriving 5 minutes late may be too late.

            Late assignments are assessed a penalty of -10% per day or any part of a day.  Make-ups of missed exams are not available.  If you are going to miss an exam, you must inform me ahead of time (in person, e-mail or phone) and have a mighty good, well-documented reason. 

If you require accommodation in testing or note-taking, you must notify me and you must give me the Disability Resource Center faculty letter within the first week of class.

KNOW THIS (or else):

 

Era                                           Period                                                                                      Epoch

                                                                                                                                                Holocene

               Quaternary_______________________________________Pleistocene______

                                                                                                                                                Pliocene

Cenozoic                                                                                                                                 Miocene

                                                                                                                                                Oligocene

 Tertiary                                                                                  Eocene

                                                                                                                                                Paleocene

-----------------------------K/T boundary  65 Ma----------------------------------------------------------------

 

                                                Cretaceous

Mesozoic                                                Jurassic

                                                Triassic

 

-----------------------------P/Tr boundary  245  Ma---------------------------------------------------------------

 

                                                Permian

                                                Pennsylvanian

                                                                                  =Carboniferous

Paleozoic                                 Mississippian

                                                Devonian

                                                Silurian

                                                Ordovician

                                                Cambrian

 

------------------------------pC/C boundary  540 Ma--------------------------------------------------------------

 

                                Proterozoic

"Precambrian”             ------------2.5Ga---------------             

                                Archaean

 

----------------------------Origin of the Earth, approx 4.5 billion years (Ga)