INTRODUCTION TO PALEONTOLOGY

LABORATORY

2005 UND Fall Semester

Geology 415 - Lab Schedule


Lab Time -- Monday's from 3:00-5:00 p.m.

and as arranged

Labs -- 209 Leonard Hall; No lab manual, labs as assigned

Lab TA -- Marron Bingle, 209 Leonard Hall

marron.bingle@und.nodak.edu, 777-4997


Lecture Professor -- Joseph Hartman; 204 Leonard Hall

joseph_hartman@und.nodak.edu, 777-5055



Week

of (Date)

 Lab Topic/Reading
8/24-26
 1 No lab

9/29-2

2

 Introduction to the Paleontology Laboratory

Class scheduling, structure, grading, etc.

Communicating Paleo to Others, The Paleontology Experience

9/5-9 3 Fossil Identification and Morphology

Exercise on Drawing Fossils.

Turn in labelled drawings on Thursday and provide clean traced images for next lab.

9/12-16 4 Labor Day observance

Come in and practice scanning and using PhotoShop.
9/19-23 5 Taphonomy, Paleoecology, and Trace Fossils

Exercise on Fossilization.

Lab includes scanning and PhotoShop work of last week's drawings.

Turn in fossilization lab exercise for grading.

9/26-30 6 Taxon Recognition and Taxonomy

Exercise on Caminalcules.

Lab includes electronic labelling of scanned images in CorelDraw.

10/

3-7

 7 Evolution

Exercise on Evolutionary Patterns (with Caminalcules).

Turn in last week's exercise in lecture for copying and grading.

10/10-14 8 GSA: Work on Caminalcules Lab

Due: Caminalcules Lab, Part 2 (to be graded).

Due: Complete CorelDraw illustration project (to be graded).

10/17-21 9 Biostratigraphy and Chronostratigraphy

Exercise on Species Ranges - Interpreting Basic Data

Exercise on Biostratigraphy

10/24-28 10 Paleoecology and Paleobiogeography

Exercise on Reconstructing Environments in Time

10/31-

11/4

 11 Paleobiogeography

Exercise on Reconstructing Environments in Time and Space

11/7-11 12 Simple Patterns and Reef Systems

Exercise on Porifera, Archaeocyatha, Cnidaria

11/14-18 13 Invertebrate Fossils

Exercise on Bryozoa and Brachiopoda

11/21-25 14 Invertebrate Fossils

Exercise on Mollusca

11/25-29 15 Invertebrate Fossils

Exercise on Arthropoda and Echinodermata

11/28-12/2 16 Vertebrate Fossils

Exercise on Graptolites and Conodonts

12/9 17 Turn in final project materials.

LABORATORY

Lab (= 20% of total percent of course grade)

Lab attendance is required.

Lab preparation is required, as presented prior to lab.

Grading on weekly quizzes or lab work

Laboratory exercises, to a certain extent, are considered as small group or class efforts. Thus lab performance will be based on quizzes and specifically assigned exercises.

A quiz, consisting of about five questions, will be given at the beginning of most lab classes. The material covered will be based on work conducted on the previous lab or from assigned tasks. Individual lab work may be graded instead of conducting a quiz depending on the exercise.

Students should bring to each lab (supplies can be kept in lab):

1) A transparent metric ruler (about 30 cm in length),

2) Pencil(s),

3) A couple of colored pencils,

4) At least a few sheets of 10-mm square graph paper (e.g., National brand (#12-188), "10 millimeters to the centimeter"), and

5) A magnifying lens (e.g., 2x or 5x) (optional; microscopes available).