Earth Sciences

AIMS

The aims are to provide students with:

• A working knowledge of how phylogenetic trees are constructed, and the strengths and weaknesses of analytical methods;
• An understanding of the role of phylogenetic trees in palaeontological research (e.g. functional morphology, biodiversity, biogeography etc.);
• Non-phylogenetic approaches to macroevolutionary pattern reconstruction (e.g. taxic diversity estimation, morphometrics);
• A clear appreciation of the history of life during the Phanerozoic, especially with regard to large-scale macroevolutionary patterns such as mass extinction events and the impact of geological/climatic change on organismal distributions.

A problem-oriented teaching approach will allow students to ask questions about the evolutionary history of a group of their choosing, and then attempt to answer such questions using the methods discussed in the course.

OUTCOMES

By the end of the course, students should:

• Be able to build phylogenetic trees and use them as part of their palaeontological research;
• Be able to select the appropriate methods and statistical tests for a particular palaeontological analysis.
• Have an appreciation of current methodological problems and controversies relating to evolutionary history;
• Be able to describe key evolutionary events that occurred during the Phanerozoic and discuss the competing explanations for such events.
• Write a report summarizing our current state of knowledge of the evolution of a selected group of organisms, the quality of its fossil record, and what research needs to be carried out in the near future.

CONTENT

• Explanation of the techniques used to construct and test evolutionary trees;
• Use of such trees to study fossil record quality, biodiversity, biogeographic history, morphological evolution, mass extinctions etc;
• A series of case studies illustrating the application of the above methods to real data (microfossils, invertbrates, vertebrates).