Methods and Techniques in Paleobiology
Code: 43858 ECTS Credits: 9| Degree | Type | Year | Semester |
|---|---|---|---|
| 4316238 Paleobiology and Fossil Record | OB | 0 | 1 |
Contact
- Name:
- Isaac Casanovas Vilar
- Email:
- Isaac.Casanovas@uab.cat
Use of Languages
- Principal working language:
- english (eng)
Teachers
- Oriol Oms Llobet
- David Martinez Alba
- Victor Fondevilla Moreu
- Soledad de Esteban Trivigno
- Zain Belaústegui Barahona
- Daniel de Miguel
- Carles Martin Closas
- Tomàs Marquès Bonet
- Diego Castanera Andres
- Isaac Casanovas Vilar
- Josep Fortuny Terricabras
Prerequisites
There are no pre-requirements.
Objectives and Contextualisation
The aim of this module is to provide the students the knowledge necessary to carry out their own research, according to the leading techniques, methods and software in Palaeontology.
Some other classic methods and techniques in taxonomy, sedimentology and taphonomy are further developed to provide the students advanced skills on them.
Competences
- Analyze data using adequate mathematical tools.
- Apply evolutionary concepts to resolve geological problems related to the time-ordering of fossils and the sediments that contain them.
- Communicate and justify conclusions clearly and unambiguously to both specialised and non-specialised audiences.
- Continue the learning process, to a large extent autonomously.
- Defend the results, respecting and discussing those of others in English.
- Gather and synthesize information from scientific literature (library, data bases, online journals, contrasted web pages).
- Identify fossilization processes and avoid taphonomic biases in the study of the biology of organisms from the past.
- Obtain original data by means of field or lab work and process them adequately to resolve questions of a paleobiological profile.
- Recognize and use the fossil record applying the theories, paradigms and concepts of evolution and ecology to resolve specific problems of life in the past.
- Solve problems in new or little-known situations within broader (or multidisciplinary) contexts related to the field of study.
- Use a scientific argument in English to justify research results .
- Use acquired knowledge as a basis for originality in the application of ideas, often in a research context.
- Use paleontological, geological, biological, chemical or physical sources of information to delimit ecological parameters in the past.
Learning Outcomes
- Analyze data using adequate mathematical tools.
- Apply the international code of zoological nomenclature in taxonomical work.
- Carry out a paleoenvironmental interpretation and argue and defend it.
- Communicate and justify conclusions clearly and unambiguously to both specialised and non-specialised audiences.
- Continue the learning process, to a large extent autonomously.
- Control field data collection methods for the study of different groups of fossils.
- Control new non-invasive visualisation and analysis technologies for vertebrate fossil remains.
- Defend their own results, respecting and discussing the results of others.
- Distinguish and interpret stratigraphic sequences.
- Gather and synthesize information from scientific literature (library, data bases, online journals, contrasted web pages).
- Identify different techniques for the paleohistological study of vertebrate fossil elements.
- Integrate taphonomic information in the context of biostratigraphy.
- Integrate the taphonomic information in the context of paleoecological and paleoenvironmental interpretation.
- Know and control study techniques for macrofossils and microfossils.
- Know and control the different study, conservation and dissemination techniques of the vertebrate fossil register.
- Know the formal aspects in the description of new species.
- Recognise in the field and interpret the lateral and vertical changes in sedimentary rocks and their fossil content.
- Recognise the eustatic variations by changes in biofacies.
- Recognise the evolutionary interaction between organisms and environments in the stratigraphic register.
- Relate concepts in the field of biostratigraphy and disseminate the results.
- Relate concepts in the field of taphonomy.
- Relate the fossil content of an outcrop with its age and environmental parameters..
- Relate the morphofunctional characteristics of organisms with the environmental parameters in the fossil register.
- Select data and techniques for a biomechanical study of organisms from the past.
- Solve problems in new or little-known situations within broader (or multidisciplinary) contexts related to the field of study.
- Understand and use univariate and multivariate statistical methods applicable to the study of fossils.
- Use acquired knowledge as a basis for originality in the application of ideas, often in a research context.
- Use scientific argumentation to justify the results of research.
Content
Methods and techniques in descriptive palaeontology: taxonomic procedures; description of species and formal nomenclature; description of intraspecific variation; systematics and phylogeny.
Methods and techniques in paleobiology: nature of the paleobiological data and main biases in the fossil record; basic statistical concepts and graphic representation of data; univariate and multivariate statistical methods applied to paleobiology; size and shape, allometry; paleohistology and vital history; phylogenetic analysis; geometric morphometrics (2D and 3D analysis, phylogenetic contrast); advanced methods in functional and biomechanical morphology (construction of virtual models and finite element analysis); methods in paleoecology and paleobiogeography (multivariate classification and ordering methods, ecological interactions over time); paleodiethetic reconstruction (analysis of tooth wear and stable isotopes); large databases and analysis of diversity in the fossil record.
Methods and sedimentological techniques of paleoenvironmental reconstruction: superficial formations vs non-superficial formations, inverted stratigraphic series; relationship between the type of sediment and its fossil content; abiotic processes and sedimentary structures in paleoenvironmental determination and reservoir formation; identification of secondary structures, sedimentary environments and their fossil content as environmental indicators (salinity, bathymetry); analytical techniques in paleoenvironmental determinations; sedimentological criteria in fossil prospection.
Methods and taphonomic techniques of paleoenvironmental reconstruction: theoretical-practical bases on the application of taphonomic and actuotaphonomic analysis methods in the establishment of paleoecological hypotheses. It will focus on a practical case.
Methodology
Lectures and Seminars
Practical classes
Learning based in problems
Written Works
Reading of Scientific Papers and Books
Activities
| Title | Hours | ECTS | Learning Outcomes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Type: Directed | |||
| Field Work | 22.5 | 0.9 | |
| Lectures and Seminars | 20 | 0.8 | 2, 16, 14, 11, 9, 6, 7, 3, 12, 13, 5, 17, 19, 18, 20, 21, 22, 24 |
| Practical classes | 30 | 1.2 | 1, 2, 16, 26, 8, 9, 6, 3, 12, 13, 10, 25, 17, 21, 22, 27, 28 |
| Type: Supervised | |||
| Learning based in problems | 4 | 0.16 | 1, 2, 16, 26, 9, 12, 10, 25, 5, 17, 22, 23, 27 |
| Reading of Scientific Papers and Books | 20.5 | 0.82 | 8, 10, 5, 28 |
| Type: Autonomous | |||
| Cooperative learning | 4 | 0.16 | 8, 4, 5, 28 |
| Written Work | 108 | 4.32 | 1, 8, 10, 25, 4, 5, 27, 28 |
Assessment
Attending and Participation in Classes
Exams
Written Works
Assessment Activities
| Title | Weighting | Hours | ECTS | Learning Outcomes |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Attending and Participation in Classes | 10% | 0 | 0 | 8, 4, 21, 27, 28 |
| Exams | 50% | 8 | 0.32 | 1, 16, 15, 26, 3, 12, 13, 25, 17, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23 |
| Written Works | 40% | 8 | 0.32 | 1, 2, 16, 14, 26, 8, 11, 9, 6, 7, 3, 12, 13, 10, 25, 4, 5, 17, 19, 18, 20, 21, 22, 24, 27, 28 |
Bibliography
Specific references will be provided by the professor of each class.