Evolutionary Palaeontology and Lab Techniques

How to study evolution in the fossil record? And how do living beings contribute to mineralization processes? These two questions stand at the heart of this teaching unit. The main aims are (1) to help students build themselves a robust knowledge on evolutionary patterns and processes as inferred from the fossil record; (2) to present biologically-derived mineralization processes that lead to skeletons, some rocks and to the fossils themselves; (3) To associate cutting-edge research questions with current methods and lab techniques.

Program :

Travaux dirigés :

Evolutionary Palaeontology :

Theory of Evolution, Advanced concepts in Macroevolution, Measuring past biodiversity, Evolution of shapes and Morphological disparity, Phylogeny and the Fossil record, Biogeography, Introduction to Macroecology.

To master key concepts in evolutionary palaeontology

To get acquainted with biologically-derived mineralization processes

To associate modern research questions with methods and lab techniques

To master basic lab techniques

To know how to interpret data acquired in the lab and to replace them in their scientific context

To follow a complete scientific course in English (listening, reading, writing)

To express oneself spontaneously in English

To be able to take notes during lectures in English

UE6 or equivalent, Listening skills in advanced scientific English, Ability to extract key points from scientific texts