Dinosaurs - Lifestyles of the Big and Famous in the Mesozoic
GEOL 3350
3 hours
Dinosaurs - Lifestyles of the Big and Famous in the Mesozoic
Course Description
Dinosaur dinners, dates, dallying, and domiciles (or dinosaur habitats and eating, reproductive, and social behavior). Warm-bloodedness versus cold-bloodedness. Relationship to birds, reptiles, and mammals. Evolutionary patterns. Extinction and asteroids. Climate, sea level, and continents during the Mesozoic Era.
Athena Title
Dinosaurs
Equivalent Courses
Not open to students with credit in GEOL 3350E
Semester Course Offered
Offered fall, spring and summer
Grading System
A - F (Traditional)
Student Learning Outcomes
Students will be able to recognize the principal clades of dinosaurs and describe their morphology and ecology.
Students will be able to explain basic concepts in geology and biology that allow paleontologists to infer the environment in which dinosaurs lived, how they were preserved as fossils, how they functioned as organisms, and how they evolved through the Mesozoic.
Students will be able to summarize recent advances in dinosaur paleobiology, including posture, body coverings, metabolism, behavior, and the origin of birds.
Students will be able to describe the major events and dinosaur faunas of the Mesozoic.
Topical Outline
Fossils
The Mesozoic Era; Stratigraphy; Geologic Time; Plate Tectonics; & Climate
Evolution
Interrelationships of the Vertebrates
Origin of the Dinosaurs
Stegosaurs & Ankylosaurs
Pachycephalosaurs & Ceratopsians
Ornithopods
Sauropods
Theropods
Birds
Dinosaur Endothermy
Dinosaur Distribution
Extinction of Dinosaurs
The course syllabus is a general plan for the course;
deviations announced to the class by the instructor may be necessary.
