About this course: Paleontology: Early Vertebrate Evolution is a four-lesson course teaching a comprehensive overview of the origin of vertebrates. Students will explore the diversity of Palaeozoic lineages within a phylogenetic and evolutionary framework. This course examines the evolution of major vertebrate novelties including the origin of fins, jaws, and tetrapod limbs. Students also explore key Canadian fossil localities, including the Burgess Shale (British Columbia), Miguasha (Quebec), and Man On The Hill (Northwest Territories). Watch a preview of the course here: https://uofa.ualberta.ca/courses/paleontology-vertebrate-evolution
Created by: University of Alberta
Taught by: Alison Murray, Ph.D, Associate Professor
Department of Biological Sciences
| Commitment | 4 weeks of study, 3-5 hours/week |
| Language | English, Subtitles: Romanian |
| How To Pass | Pass all graded assignments to complete the course. |
| User Ratings |
Syllabus
WEEK 1
The Phanerozoic Begins
In this lesson we take you back to the beginning of the Phanerozoic Eon to learn what it truly means to have backbone, as we encounter the key anatomical features of vertebrates and their closest chordate relatives. We’ll also introduce the language of evolut...
4 videos, 6 readings
Graded: Module 1 Assessment (Graded)
WEEK 2
Learning to Swim
The old problem of the comparative anatomist was exactly how to compare two animals that appeared, at first glance, to look nothing alike. How, do you compare cows and lobsters? Well, in this lesson you’ll not only learn how to compare crustaceans and cattle, ...
3 videos, 1 reading
Graded: Module 2 Assessment (Graded)
WEEK 3
Learning to Bite
The Ordovician, Silurian and Devonian Periods were times of great continental, oceanic and climactic change that brought about the Earth’s first mass extinction events. With environmental catastrophes opening up new ecological niches, a trait evolved in early ...
3 videos, 1 reading
Graded: Module 3 Assessment (Graded)
WEEK 4
Learning to Walk
Although this lesson marks the end of the beginning of the vertebrate story, we still have some bones left to pick! In this last lesson we’ll look at the features of the Osteichthyes (the bony fishes) and examine the differences between two immensely successfu...
3 videos, 1 reading
Graded: Module 4 Assessment (Graded)
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Ratings and Reviews
Excellent material and course.
Great class! Cover a lot of material very clearly in four weeks. The use of the media is good with in-video quizzes, interactive geologic time scale and phylogenetic tree of life. Course notes are provided for each lessons (they are very well done). The presenter, Scott Pearson, a PhD student at the time if I am not mistaken, is great, though he is very surprisingly not credited on the homepage of the course, which is a shame (especially given that he has also written his scripts among other things...) More pictures/videos of fossils, as well as videos on fossil sites, would have been great. Also sometimes the course sounded too much like a catalog of facts. More scientific reasoning would have been great.
So well done, very interesting and informative. I learned so much and was hooked the entire time.
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mb
Great class! Very informative and the quiz material was challenging.