GEOL 104 Dinosaurs: A Natural History Fall Semester 2012
Introduction: What are Dinosaurs? What is Science? The Meaning
of Fossils Review course policies, Goals of this course: - Use
dinosaurs as means of introducing students to key concepts of
natural historical sciences, especially evolutionary biology and
historical geology - Demonstrate the scientific method as it is
employed to test questions about the paleobiology, behavior, and
extinction of dinosaurs - Use the Dinosauria as a model of
demonstrating patterns of evolutionary divergence and adaptation
Learning Outcomes: By the end of the semester, every student
should be able to: - Identify the major clades of dinosaurs and
their primary attributes (anatomy, behavior, stratigraphic and
geographic distribution, etc.) - Interpret cladograms in
determining evolutionary relationships and distribution of
specializations - Assess claims of inferred dinosaurian
behavior, physiology, and extinction patterns from fossil
Dinosaur science is NOT Archaeology! Paleon