Learning outcomes

Knowledge of the main fossil groups through analysis of the relevant morphological characters in order to deduce their major implications at stratigraphic, evolutionary, paleogeographic, paleoenvironmental and paleoclimatic levels.

Goals

Through the analysis of fossils, understand how evolved, over the course of geological time :

- the major stages of life (colonization of environments, diversification, extinctions, etc.),

- the innovations developed in the various animal (invertebrate and vertebrate) and plant groups during the conquest of different paleoenvironments (terrestrialization, flight, return to water, gigantism, etc.),

- the evolution and adaptive radiation of various groups that flourished in their paleoecosystems..

Through the identification of diagnostic characters specific to each group, students develop skills in biostratigraphy and sediment dating, phylogeny, paleogeographic interpretation, as well as paleoclimate and paleoenvironment reconstruction.

Content

In a new form, this general paleontology course covers both classic concepts and new concepts based on new discoveries, theories and methods of investigation, in a multi-disciplinary approach, with a balance between the groups covered (based on Belgian fossils and paleontological sites when possible).

Table of contents

Introduction and basic principles (definition, history, fossilization, taphonomy, biostratigraphy, paleobiogeography, paleoecology-paleoclimate, theories of evolution, classification, dating, extinctions); the origin of life in the Precambrian; fossil invertebrates (explosion of life and appearance of the shell in the Cambrian, radiation in the Ordovician, first steps on earth in the Silurian, insects in the Carboniferous, ...); fossil vertebrates (major innovations: legged fish, feathered dinosaurs, limb reduction, the magic tooth in mammals, primates everywhere, ...); fossil plants (the world of algae, vascularization, the invention of the ovule, the miniaturization of male gametes, the appearance of the seed, the first flowering plants, ...).

Exercices

Specimens from each group of invertebrates, vertebrates and fossil plants will be analyzed in practical work to learn about morphology and systematics. Sieve residue will be sorted under a binocular microscope in search of microvertebrates. A day's visit to the Royal Belgian Institute of Natural Sciences (backstage and collections of 3 million specimens; micro- and macrovertebrate preparation laboratories; Evolution, Dinosaurs and Man exhibition galleries; meetings with paleontology researchers and technicians) will round off the course.

Assessment method

Oral exam with written preparation on theory and practical work.

Sources, references and any support material

Personal sources of long-standing research experience, complemented by two books on paleontology education: Benton & Harper: Introduction to Paleobiology and the Fossil Record (Wiley-Blackwell); Taylor, Taylor & Krings: Paleobotany - The Biology and Evolution of Fossil Plants (Elsevier).

Language of instruction

Français