Thursday, 8/31

Course Syllabus

Lecture 1: What Happened to the Dinosaurs?

Reading: The Mistaken Extinction, pp. 1-20

Prologue

Chapter 01 - the Seductive Allure of Dinosaurs

Chapter 02 - Earlier Extinction Hypotheses

Week 2

Tuesday, 9/05

Lecture 2: The Discovery of Time

Reading: pp. 21-42

Chapter 03 - Contrasting Volcanic and Impact Hypotheses

Chapter 04 - Enormous Eruptions, Disappearing Seaways

Thursday, 9/07

Lecture 3: Collecting Evidence

Multimedia CD:

   Collecting Triceratops

Week 3

Tuesday, 9/12

Lecture 4: Earth Structure & Evolution

Multimedia CD:

    Plate Tectonics

Thursday, 9/14

Lecture 5: Sedimentation and Fossilization

Reading: pp. 43-66

Chapter 05 -  Fatal Impact

Week 4

Tuesday, 9/19

Lecture 6: Uniformitarianism & the Fatal Impact

impact sites

Reading: pp. 67-74

Chapter 06 - the Search for the Smoking Gun

Thursday, 9/21

Week 5

Tuesday, 9/26

Lecture 7: Evolution, Hierarchy, & Genealogy

Reading: pp. 75-90:

Chapter 07 - Patterns of Survival and Extinction

Multimedia CD:

    Systematics

Thursday, 9/28

Lecture 8: The Vertebrate Skeleton

Reading: pp. 91-104

Chapter 08 - Our Hazy View of Time at the K/T Boundary

Multimedia CD: Archosaur

    Anatomy

Week 6

Tuesday, 10/03

Lecture 9: Vertebrate Origins

Reading: pp. 105-124

Chapter 9 - Living Dinosaurs?

Thursday, 10/05

Lecture 10: Fish-like Vertebrates

Reading: pp. 125-140

Chapter 10 - Dinosaurs Challenge Evolution

Week 7

Tuesday, 10/10

Lecture 11: Life on Land

Reading: pp. 141-168

Chapter 11- Dinosaurs and the Hierarchy of Life

Thursday, 10/12

Lecture 12: Archosaurs

Multimedia CD:

     Vertebrate Cladogram

     & Cladogram Quizzes

Week 8 - SVP

Tuesday, 10/17

Lecture 13: The Origin of Dinosaurs

Multimedia: Dinosaur

     Cladogram, Part I

Reading: pp. 169-194

Chpt 12 - Evolutionary

     Map for Dinosaurs

Thursday, 10/19

Week 9

Tuesday, 10/24

Exam II

Multimedia CD: Dino

     Cladogram & Dinosaur

     Drill Instructor

Thursday, 10/26

Week 10

Tuesday, 10/31

Lecture 15: Saurischia

Multimedia CD: Dino

     Cladogram & Dinosaur

     Drill Instructor

Thursday, 11/02

Lecture 16: Early Theropod Diversification

Multimedia CD: Dino

     Cladogram & Dinosaur

     Drill Instructor

Week 11

Tuesday, 11/07

Lecture 17: Origin of Birds

Reading: pp. 195-206

Chpt 13 - Death by

    Decree

Thursday, 11/09

Lecture 18: Mesozoic Bird Evolution

Reading: pp. 207-228

Chpt 14 - Road to

    Jurassic Park

Week 12

Tuesday, 11/14

Lecture 19: Death by Decree

Multimedia CD: continued

     work with Dino

     Cladogram & Dinosaur

     Drill Instructor

Thursday, 11/16

Exam III

Week 13

Tuesday, 11/21

Lecture 20: Cenozoic Dinosaur Diversification

Reading: pp. 229-244

Chpt 15 - Crossing the

     Boundary

Thursday, 11/23

Thanksgiving Holiday

Week 14

Tuesday, 11/28

Lecture 21: Origin of Mammals

Reading: pp. 245-263

Chpt 16 -

     Diversification and

     Decline

Multimedia CD:

     Vertebrate Cladogram

     - Synapsids

Reading:  pp. 265-284

Chapter 17 - The Real great Dinosaur Extinction

Week 15

Tuesday, 12/05

Lecture 23: Continental Extinctions

Reading: pp. 285-296

Chapter 18 - the Third Wave

and pp. 297-301

Epilogue

Thursday, 12/07