Universität Wien

280182 SE Evolution and Palaeobiology of Dinosaurs (2025S)

3.00 ECTS (2.00 SWS), SPL 28 - Erdwissenschaften, Meteorologie - Geophysik und
Continuous assessment of course work
Moodle
We 18.06. 15:00-16:30 Felix-Machatschki-Seminarraum Mineralogie 2B284 2.OG UZA II

Registration/Deregistration

Note: The time of your registration within the registration period has no effect on the allocation of places (no first come, first served).

Details

max. 20 participants
Language: English

Lecturers

Classes (iCal) - next class is marked with N

19.03.25 Patrick Etzler: Dinosaur diversity across the J/K boundary
26.03.25 Carl von Schreibers Research Price: Prsentation Elora Marx
02.04.25 Julian Pietralla: The Dawn of Dinosaurs & Stefan Philipp: Sauropoda: Size matter
09.04.25 Julian Leimhofer: Jurassic Park – The Lost World: Genetics and beyond & Moritz Leonardelli: Did dinosaurs purr or roar? – Vocalization in dinosaurs
16.04.25 Elora Marx: Social behavior - What do we know, what do we imagine?
07.05.25
14.05.25 Leon Plakolm: Skin, feathers, and color & Ilvie Fuchsbauer: Senses in dinosaurs: Seeing and hearing
21.05.25 Kerstin Eggelsberger: Dinosaurs take flight: Evolution and loss of flight in basal birds
28.05.25
04.06.25 Vanessa Wohlmuth: Dinosaur extinction – The last 50 million years
11.06.25 Lujza Geisbühl: The brain of dinosaurs – Do we know what a dinosaur thought?
18.06.25 Alexander Festi: Tyreophora – The “shield bearer”
25.06.25 Hannah Lüth: What are spinosaurids?

  • Wednesday 05.03. 15:00 - 16:30 Felix-Machatschki-Seminarraum Mineralogie 2B284 2.OG UZA II
  • Wednesday 19.03. 15:00 - 16:30 Felix-Machatschki-Seminarraum Mineralogie 2B284 2.OG UZA II
  • Wednesday 26.03. 15:00 - 16:30 Felix-Machatschki-Seminarraum Mineralogie 2B284 2.OG UZA II
  • Wednesday 02.04. 15:00 - 16:30 Felix-Machatschki-Seminarraum Mineralogie 2B284 2.OG UZA II
  • Wednesday 09.04. 15:00 - 16:30 Felix-Machatschki-Seminarraum Mineralogie 2B284 2.OG UZA II
  • Wednesday 30.04. 15:00 - 16:30 Felix-Machatschki-Seminarraum Mineralogie 2B284 2.OG UZA II
  • Wednesday 07.05. 15:00 - 16:30 Felix-Machatschki-Seminarraum Mineralogie 2B284 2.OG UZA II
  • Wednesday 14.05. 15:00 - 16:30 Felix-Machatschki-Seminarraum Mineralogie 2B284 2.OG UZA II
  • Wednesday 21.05. 15:00 - 16:30 Felix-Machatschki-Seminarraum Mineralogie 2B284 2.OG UZA II
  • Wednesday 28.05. 15:00 - 16:30 Felix-Machatschki-Seminarraum Mineralogie 2B284 2.OG UZA II
  • Wednesday 04.06. 15:00 - 16:30 Felix-Machatschki-Seminarraum Mineralogie 2B284 2.OG UZA II
  • Wednesday 11.06. 15:00 - 16:30 Felix-Machatschki-Seminarraum Mineralogie 2B284 2.OG UZA II
  • Wednesday 25.06. 15:00 - 16:30 Felix-Machatschki-Seminarraum Mineralogie 2B284 2.OG UZA II

Information

Aims, contents and method of the course

The Dinosauria represents an extremely successful group of tetrapods that were the dominant terrestrial group of most of the Mesozoic Era. They even evolved active, powered flight and their descendants, the birds, which are nested deeply in theropods survived the K/Pg-boundary event and are highly diverse today. In this seminar, Dinosauria is considered paraphyletic, excluding both Mesozoic and Cenozoic birds and thus focuses exclusively on terrestrial adapted groups, but including the stem group of birds.
Dinosaurs are not anymore considered the cold-blooded, tail-dragging, stupid, lizard-like monsters of the Victorian age, when they first were recognized as distinct group by Sir Richard Owen in 1842. Conversely, we now regard them as upright, active, fast-growing and certainly not stupid reptiles. In fact, they were extremely successful occupying every ecosystem from mountains to deltas on all continents, including Antarctica.
All fossil discoveries and more than 200 years of research, which started 1824, enabled scientists to reconstruct many aspects of their evolutionary history and palaeobiology. Nevertheless, we are still far away from completely understanding dinosaurs.
The aim of this seminar is to summarize and discuss current research findings on the evolution and palaeobiology of dinosaurs.

Assessment and permitted materials

Students will present a 20 minute PowerPoint lecture in English on a current topic (see Moodle for list of possible topics) and lead the subsequent discussion. Research for the presentation has to be done by the student. No literature will be provided.

Minimum requirements and assessment criteria

The assessment is based on the presentation style, the PowerPoint outline, the completeness of literture research, and the subsequent leading of the discussion.

Examination topics

A solid and coherent presentation on current topics in the evolution and/or paleobiology of dinosaurs.

Reading list

Self-conducted literature research.

Association in the course directory

MA-ERD-W-1.1

Last modified: Mo 19.05.2025 15:26