| Course ID: | GEOL 3350. 3 hours. |
| Course Title: | 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. |
| Oasis Title: | Dinosaurs |
| Duplicate Credit: | Not open to students with credit in GEOL 3350E |
Semester Course
Offered: | Offered fall, spring and summer semester every year. |
| Grading System: | A-F (Traditional) |
|
| Course Objectives: | Students will be familiar with the lifestyles and habitats of dinosaurs.
The student will be able to describe the ways in which dinosaurs ate, reproduced,
moved about the landscape and defended themselves, and the ways interacted socially.
The student will be able to explain the taxonomic relationships among
different dinosaur groups and the relationship of dinosaurs to other terrestrial
vertebrates, extant and extinct. The student will be familiar with the principles
of geology, sedimentary rocks, environments of deposition, fossils and fossilization.
The student will be familiar with the principles of biological classification and
of evolution, including extinction. The student will be able to explain the observations
indicating that dinosaurs were warm-blooded and those indicating they were cold-blooded.
The student will be able to relate the changes in plate tectonic activity and climate
during
the Mesozoic Era to dinosaur evolution. The student will be evaluated through exams,
term papers and discussions.
The student will be prepared to critically evaluate news reports dealing with dinosaurs
and other terrestrial vertebrates. The student will understand the relationships between
geology, including plate tectonics and climate, and dinosaur other terrestrial
vertebrate evolution. |
| 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. |
| Honor Code Reference: | All students are expected to follow the UGA Student Honor Code. The code states
"I will be academically honest in all of my academic work and will not tolerate
academic dishonesty of others." |