012:170 PALEOECOLOGY Spring 2005
COURSE GOAL: To understand the nature and evolution of Earth’s ecosystems over geologic time and approaches to their analysis.
INSTRUCTOR: Dr. Hallie J. Sims
Office hours: Wednesday 9-12 or by appointment
Office: 237 Trowbridge Hall
335-0995; hallie-sims@uiowa.edu
LECTURE: Tuesday/Thursday 9:30-10:45 in Room 36 Trowbridge Hall
GRADING:
Research papers (50% of final grade). Students will submit two research papers on their choice of topic related to paleoecology. Paper should include literature review and some original thought and work. Each paper should be at least 20 pages, doublespaced
12 point Times font or equivalent. Legitimate excuses for extensions will be evaluated by instructor on a case by case basis. Unexcused late papers will be dropped one full letter grade for each week they are late. Optional: Instructor will comment on drafts submitted by 4 March (Paper 1) and 29 April (Paper 2).
Paper 1: Topic and outline due 8 February
Final paper due 11 March by 5pm
Paper 2: Topic and outline due 5 April
Final paper due 6 May by 5pm
Thursday discussions (30% of final grade):
Written summary of each assigned paper. Discuss some specific points of assigned paper. Summary may be as short as a couple paragraphs, but should show critical reading of assigned paper and thought on topic. Summaries due at beginning of class each Thursday. No late papers will be accepted. Verbal participation in Thursday discussions.
Discussion presentation (20% of final grade). Each student will take charge of two of the weekly Thursday discussions, in teams if class size permits. Student should provide discussion outline for class based on assigned paper and additional background reading. Handout might contain summary of key points, provacative statements or questions to prompt discussion, a list of related references, and graphs or figures from other papers relevant to discussion. See instructor for help with any necessary materials such as copying or overhead transparencies.
Plus/minus grades will be assigned on the basis of the point total at the end of the term.
Class attendance and participation will be considered in deciding final grades that are borderline.
SCHEDULE:
18 January Introduction
20 January Jablonski, D. and J.J. Sepkoski, Jr. 1996. Paleobiology, community
ecology, and scales of ecological pattern. Ecology 77:1367-1378
25 January Qualities of the fossil record
27 January Schopf, T.J.M. 1978. Fossilization potential of an intertidal fauna: Friday
Harbor, Washington. Paleobiology 4:261-270.
1 February Populations and abundance data
3 February Kidwell, S.M. and K.W. Flessa. 1995. The quality of the fossil record:
populations, species, and communities. Annual Review of Ecology and
Systematics 26:269-299.
8 February Community diversity
10 February Brett, C.E., L.C. Ivany, and K.M. Schopf. 1996. Coordinated stasis: an
overview. Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology 127:1-20.
15 February Scales in diversity
17 February Sekposki, J.J., Jr. 1988. Alpha, beta, or gamma: where does all the
diversity go? Paleobiology 14:221-234.
22 February Evolutionary rates
24 February Van Valen, L. 1973. A new evolutionary law. Evolutionary Theory
1:179-229.
1 March Radiations
3 March Valentine, J.W., D.H. Erwin, and D. Jablonski. 1996. Developmental
evolution of metazoan body plans. Developmental Biology 173:373-381.
8 March Ecosystems in crisis
10 March Labandeira, C.C., K.R. Johnson, and P. Wilf. 2002. Impact of the terminal
Cretaceous event on plant-insect associations. Proceedings of the National
Academy of Sciences, USA 99:2061-2066.
15 March: SPRING BREAK
17 March: SPRING BREAK
22 March Biomass and energetics
24 March Bambach, R.K. 1993. Seafood through time: changes in biomass,
energetics, and productivity in the marine ecosystem. Paleobiology
19:372-397.
29 March Ecomorphology
31 March Raup, D.M. 1966. Geometric analysis of shell coiling: general problems.
Journal of Paleontology 40:1178-1190.
5 April Evolutionary interactions
7 April Vermeij , G.J. 1977. The Mesozoic marine revolution: evidence from
snails, predators and grazers. Paleobiology 3:245-258.
12 April Ecospace utilization
14 April Walker, T.D. and J.W. Valentine. 1984. Equilibrium models of
evolutionary species diversity and the number of empty niches. American
Naturalist 124:887-899.
19 April Community structuring
21 April Simberloff, D. and T. Dayan. 1991. The guild concept and the structure of
ecological communities. Annual Review of Ecology and Systematics
22:115-143.
26 April Ecological networking
28 April Martinez, N.D., B.A Hawkins, H.A. Dawah, B.P. Feifarek. 1999. Effects
of sampling effort on characterization of foodweb structure. Ecology
80:1044-1055.
3 May Paleoecology and neoecology
5 May t.b.a.