Taphonomy

Catalog description

All living organisms eventually succumb to the same end: death. Taphonomy is the study of everything that happens to an organism from the time of its death until its discovery as a fossil. This course explores the varied environmental, geologic, and biologic processes that act on organic remains after death, including how these processes can bias the fossil record or yield information about past ecosystems. The course has a laboratory component that compliments the lecture series.