SYLLABUS
WEEK 1
No lab this week.
Reading Assignment:
C. Sagan, "The fine art of baloney detection" (pp. 29-38)
S. Gould, "Dolly’s fashion and Louis’s passion" (pp. 39-44)
August 27 Introduction to Course
August 29 Introduction to Scientific Inquiry
August 31 History of Dinosaur Science I
WEEK 2
No lab this week.
Reading Assignment:
Geological Time Scale (p. 1)
W. Sargeant, "The earliest discoveries." (pp. 45-49)
September 3 No class (Labor Day)
September 5 History of Dinosaur Science II
September 7 Geological Time
WEEK 3
Lab: Fossilization and the Rock Cycle
Reading Assignment:
P. Sereno, "Dinosaurs and drifitng continents." (pp. 50-57)
September 10 Earth Structure and Plate Tectonics
September 12 Surficial Earth Processes
September 14 Fossilization
WEEK 4
Lab: Skeletal Anatomy
Reading Assignment:
D. Chure, "Digging them up" (pp. 58-60)
S. Gould, "Evolution as fact and theory" (pp. 61-66)
(It might be worth looking at p. 70)
September 17 Finding Dinosaurs
September 19 Evolutionary Processes
September 21 Evolutionary Patterns and Phylogenetic Systematics
WEEK 5
Lab: Phylogenetic Systematics I
Reading Assignment:
L. Dingus and T. Rowe, "Dinosaurs and the hierarchy of life." (pp. 67-94)
September 24 Thumbnail History of Vertebrates
September 26 Origin of Archosaurs
September 28 Ancestry of Dinosaurs (first exam covers material through THIS lecture)
WEEK 6
Lab: Phylogenetic Systematics II
Reading Assignment:
D. Norman, "Feeding adaptations in the Dinosauria" (pp. 95-104)
October 1 Origin of Herbivory and Ornithischian Dinosaurs
October 3 EXAM I (note: will NOT cover Oct. 8 lecture)
October 5 Video assignment
WEEK 7
Lab: Exam Postmortem
Reading Assignment:
S. Sampson, "Horns, herds, and hierarchies." (pp. 105-109)
October 8 Armored Dinosaurs (Thyreophorans)
October 10 Marginocephalians and Buttheads (Pachycephalosaurians)
October 12 Horned Dinosaurs (Ceratopsians)
WEEK 8
Lab: Plants During the Age of Dinosaurs
Reading Assignment:
J. Horner, "The nesting behavior of dinosaurs" (pp. 110-117)
P. Dodson, "Lifestyles of the huge and famous" (pp. 118-121)
C. Forster, "Hadrosauridae" (pp. 122-128)
October 15 Ornithopods
October 17 Saurischian Origins and Early Sauropodomorphs
October 19 Sauropods
WEEK 9
Lab: Using Phylogenetics – Character Evolution
Reading Assignment:
G. Erickson, "Breathing life into T. rex
" (pp. 129-135)L. Dingus and T. Rowe, excerpt from "Evolutionary map for dinosaurs." (pp. 136-145)
October 22 Rise of the Theropods
October 24 Stiff-Tailed Dinosaurs (Tetanurae)
October 26 Basal Coelurosaurs (Including Tyrannosaurids)
WEEK 10
Lab: A Trip to the Museum
Reading Assignment:
M. Norell, "The proof is in the plumage." (pp. 146-151)
K. Padian and L. Chiappe,
"The origin of birds and their flight." (pp. 152-160)October 29 Introduction to Maniraptora
October 31 The Feathered Dinosaurs of Liaoning
November 2 Archaeopteryx and the Origin of Birds
WEEK 11
Lab: Flight
Reading Assignment:
L. Chiappe, "A diversity of early birds." (pp. 161-164)
L. Dingus and T. Rowe, "Crossing the boundary." (pp. 165-180)
November 5 EXAM II
November 7 Are Birds Not Dinosaurs?
November 9 Mesozoic History of Flying Dinosaurs
WEEK 12
Lab: Exam Postmortem
Reading Assignment:
R. Motani, "Rulers of the Jurassic seas." (pp. 181-187)
L. Dingus and T. Rowe, "Diversification and decline" (pp. 188-206)
November 12 Cenozoic History of Flying Dinosaurs
November 14 Things that are Not Dinosaurs: Synapsids and Mammals
November 16 Things that are Not Dinosaurs: Marine Reptiles
WEEK 13
No lab this week
Reading Assignment:
R. Monastersky, "Pterosaurs: Lords of the ancient skies" (pp. 207-220)
November 19T hings that are Not Dinosaurs: Crocodylians and Relatives
November 21 Things that are Not Dinosaurs: Pterosaurs
November 23 Thanksgiving/no classes
WEEK 14
Lab: Biomechanics – Using Footprints (bring a calculator)
Reading Assignment:
J. Flynn and D. Krause, "Monsters of Madagascar" (pp. 221-233)
P. Vickers-Rich and T. Rich, "Australia’s polar dinosaurs" (pp. 234-239)
November 26 Putting It Together: The Permian and Triassic
November 28 Putting It Together: The Jurassic
November 30 Putting It Together: The Cretaceous
WEEK 15
Lab: Using Phylogenetics - Biogeography and Time
Reading Assignment:
W. Alvarez, "Armageddon" (pp. 240-248)
D. Archibald, "The fates of vertebrates" and "Shades of Dante’s Inferno
" (pp. 249-264)Weed, "What did dinosaurs look like – and will we ever know?" (pp. 265-271)
December 3 Taking It Apart: Extinctions and their Causes
December 5 Putting It Back Together Again: What Can We Reconstruct?
December 7 The Song Remains the Same – Recurring Themes in Dinosaur Phylogeny
WEEK 16
Lab: Review for Final
Reading Assignment:
R. Bakker, "Dinosaur renaissance" (pp. 272-286)
K. Padian, "Feathers, fakes, and fossil dealers: How the commercial sale of fossils erodes science and education" (pp. 287-291)
December 10 Dinosaurs vs. "Dinosaurs:" What We Know and What We See
December 12 The Good and the Bad in Science
December 14 Valediction
FINAL EXAM December 21 (Friday) 9:45am; place to be announced.