Semester: | 2nd |
Course Type: | Mandatory |
Course Code: | Y2205 |
eClass URL | ➽ |
Hours per Week | |
- Lecturing: | 3 |
- Practical/Lab Exersices: | 3 |
Total Hours of Fieldwork Exersice: | 12 |
ERASMUS: | ✔ |
ECTS: | 6 |
Teaching Units: | 6 |
Prerequisites: | - |
Expected Prior Knowlegde: | - |
This is the introductory course in the science of Palaeontology. The course deals with the study of the main groups of fossils corresponding to invertebrate, vertebrate animals and plant organisms. These organisms serve as dating tools, but also as palaeoecological indicators and are highlighted as ideal tools in environmental and geo-environmental research.
Research Object and Study Methods. Applications of Palaeontology. Fossils, types of fossils and fossilization methods, facies. The significance of fossils. Systematics, fossil terminology, nomenclature, and classification. Principles of evolution, palaeoecology, and taphonomy. Fossils and geological time, stratigraphic scale, biochronology, biosratigraphy, temporal constants in independent time scales. Early life forms, evolution of living organisms in geological time, mass extinctions. Applied Palaeontology: The contribution of Palaeontology to Stratigraphy, palaeobiogeography, palaeogeography, mapping, palaeoenvironment, palaeoceanography, palaeoclimatology. Introduction to Palaeontology: the main taxonomic groups of Invertebrates, Vertebrates and Plants with an emphasis on the Greek fossil record. Principles of palaeontological material conservation, palaeontological excavations. Natural History Museums, fossil curation and palaeontological outreach, palaeontological collections and databases.