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Norm raised a very good point ("Should we be ranking particular aspects of
paleontology as being more central to the science than others . . . ") that
I continuously ask myself every year as I amend my paleontology course.
Because I teach at Juniata College (a small, private, liberal-arts college,
with no graduate programs) in central Pennsylvania (USA) in a department of
three geology faculty, I feel rather paleontologically isolated. At
Juniata, we send most (60-70%) of our graduates on to graduate schools
(last year seven of ten). Our department offers separate sedimentology and
stratigraphy courses that most of our majors take and so I teach
biostratigraphy in the stratigraphy course. Below, I included lecture and
laboratory topics I normally cover in my paleontology class. To those of
you out on the cutting edge, what else should I include? What should I
delete?
To specifically address Norm's question, since I feel that paleontologic
and biostratigraphic investigations rely on sound systematics and taxonomy,
naturally I feel that systematics is a central concern.
INVERTEBRATE PALEONTOLOGY
Topic Laboratory
Introduction Classification
Functional Morphology I
Allometry
Allometry Field Work
(Mahantango Fm.)
Functional Morphology II
Ontogeny, Phylogeny & Heterochrony
Ontogeny, Phylogeny & Heterochrony Field Work (Mahantango Fm.)
Systematics and Microtaxonomy
Seminar: The Species Problem
Systematics and Macrotaxonomy I Field Work (Mahantango Fm.)
Systematics and Macrotaxonomy II, and Cladistics I
Cladistics II Field Work
(Mahantango Fm.)
Prokaryotae & Protoctista
Prokaryotae & Protoctista
Taphonomy Preservation &
Protoctista
Porifera
Cnidaria Porifera &
Cnidaria
Seminar: The Origin of Species I
Seminar: The Origin of Species II
Arthropoda Arthropoda
Seminar: The Origin of Species III
Seminar: The Origin of Species IV
Mollusca I
Seminar: The Origin of Species V
Mollusca II Mollusca I
Seminar: The Origin of Species VI
The New Synthesis and the Unfinished Synthesis (Evolutionary Hierarchies)
Mollusca III: Mollusca II
Extinction I
Extinction II
Seminar: Evolution and Creationism
Brachiopoda Brachiopoda
Extinction III
Seminar: Evolution and Creationism
Ectoprocta Brachiopoda &
Ectoprocta
Aves: Home Laboratory
Aves: Home Laboratory
Evolutionary Trends I Mahantango Project
Evolutionary Trends II
Evolution Simulation
Echinodermata Echinodermata
Seminar: Biogeography
Seminar: K/T Extinction
Hemichordata Graptolithina
Seminar: K/T Extinction
Cheers,
Keith O. Mann
Department of Geology
Juniata College
Huntingdon, PA 16652
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