300041 VO Introduction to Palaeobiology (2005W)

Principles of geology and petrology (origin of the solar system and the structure of the Earth, rock-types, rock-forming minerals, sediments, guide- and facies fossils), palaeobiology: fossilization ( soft-part presevation, skeletal substances, metasomatism, allochthony¿). The origin of life: the oldest sediments, stromatolithes, cyanobacteria. Photosystem II and the oxygenation of the hydrosphere. The Cambrian radiation of marine phyla. Morphology, systematic affinities, biology and stratigraphic range of some organism: Stromatolitha, Archaeocyatha, Stromatoporoidea, Rugosa, Trilobita, Eurypterida, Graptholithoidea, Ammonoidea and Belemnitoidea, Agnathi, Placodermi, Acanthodii, Dipnoi, Crossopterygii, Labyrinthodontia, Dinosauria, Ichthyosauria, Plesiosauria, Placodontia; origin and organization of mammals. The colonization of land by plants and animals, coal-swamps of Carboniferous, the origin of seed-plants, radiation of angiosperms, changes in palaeogeography.