Taphonomy

Catalog description

(cross-leveled with GEOL 4350 ). The purposes of this course are to 1) analyze patterns in the history of life and 2) to recognize the biased processes that led to its preservation. We will accomplish these goals by examining two disparate fossil preservation pathways: 1) Konservat lagerstätten: fossil deposits that are notorious for the exceptional and rare preservation of soft tissues and 2) Konzentrat lagerstätten: fossil deposits that are exceptional for the enormous amount of fossilized skeletal material they contain. Through careful examination of both the rare and hyper-abundant we can address the fundamental question of paleobiology: how literally can the fossil record be read as the history of life? Graded on A-F basis only. Credit Hour s : 3