Project

  • How would I go an study a fossil biota, what evidence can I get, what research can I do

  • What techniques are used, rather than knowledge found


Lecture 1- Intro

  • what was the environment (atmosphere and climate) like back then?

  • think about everything in the lagerstatten e.g. microbes

  • show skill of correctly and sensibly interpreting the fossil record

  • taphonomy→ why is this fossil in this environment

  • why is this exceptionally preserved? why is this really important?

Lecture 2- The invasion of land

  • in every project, someone has taken rock, dissolved it up, put it on a slide, studied the spores and pollen→ NEED TO MENTION THIS, looking for total evidence, must look at the dispersed spores pollen

  • what was the palaeoenvironment like at the time interval I am studying? (CO2, O2 levels)

Lecture 3- The origin of vascular plants

  • are my plants gametophyte dominant or sporophyte dominant?

Lecture 4- The rhynie chert (case study)

  • guide of coursework answer is on the document

    • needs more insight, some areas are mentioned but not in detail

    • understanding of exceptional preservation and why it is important

    • list biota→ use taxonomic ranking if there is lots of biota

  • which fossils are missing in my project?

Lecture 5- The first trees and forests

Lecture 6- Carboniferous

  • plant- animal interactions→ does my project show plant-animal interactions (herbivory)? this would be important

Lecture 7- Coal measure forests (case study)

  1. understand background

  • need to mention 2 fossil records:

    • plant megafossils

    • plant dispersed microfossils→ dissolve rocks up, get lots of pollen/spores, study on microscopes

      • each plant has a unique pollen type→ can link pollen location to sporangia

      • need to mention this as every project has someone dissolving up the rock and finding this

Lecture 8- Permian

Lecture 9- Tempo and mode

  • coevolution:

    • plant-fungal interactions

    • plant-animal interactions (herbivory, pollination, seed dispersal)

L10- Triassic

L11- Jurassic

L12- Origin of the Angiosperms

  • need to reconstruct the entire biota→ animals, plants, pollen, seeds

L13- Cretaceous

  • a good taxonomic tool→ different angiosperm groups have different wood structures, taking thin sections of wood, can see structure clearly

L14- Palaeogene

  • many projects have lots of organisms→ only look at the non-marine and freshwater aquatic organisms, use taxonomic groups, select a suitable taxonomic level to work at e.g. family level

  • list of taxa doesn’t go into the word count


L15- Neogene

  • grasslands expanding→ deterioration of climate→ becomes drier, get more wildfires- climate change, fire, plant-animal interactions (colin osbourne)

  • have 925,000 insect species today, more will be discovered, diversity relates to angiosperms in some way e.g. pollination species, feed on them- some projects main focus is evidence of plant-insect/plant-fungal interactions


Marking Rubric:

  • description of site biota

  • interpretation of biota

  • interpretation of exceptional preservation

  • literature

  • english, layout, diagrams

  • other comments

  • official scheme is for project

  • crib sheet→ has a sheet of stuff he wants to see for each project-

    • description of biota- formations, age rock type, type of biota

    • interpretation of biota- spores and pollen

    • interpretation of exceptional preservation- konzentrat-lagerstatten, where did it accumulate, types of exceptional preservation

    • literature- numbers of literature, specific authors

    • english, layout, diagrams- location map, section, palaeogeography, images of fossils

    • other comments- a species list at a sensitive taxa, critical time for a specific species

  • to get a first, need something more interesting/pulling together separate strands