PALEOECOLOGY
cod. 02626

Academic year 2007/08
2° year of course - First semester
Professor
Academic discipline
Paleontologia e paleoecologia (GEO/01)
Field
Discipline geologiche e paleontologiche
Type of training activity
Characterising
36 hours
of face-to-face activities
4 credits
hub:
course unit
in - - -

Learning objectives

<br />The course deals with marine paleoecology and its objective is to show how fossils can be used for paleoenviromental reconstruction at level of individual, population and community.

Prerequisites

no

Course unit content

<br />-        Introduction (history, definitions and subdivision of paleoecology; relationships between ecology and paleoecology);<br />-        Basic concepts of ecology and the marine ecosystem (physical environments, life modes and trophic strategies of marine organisms, <br />-        Environmental control on organism distribution in the marine environments;<br />-        Taxonomic uniformism and functional morphology;<br />-        Fossils as environmental indicators;<br />-        Paleoenviromental reconstruction at population and community levels;<br />-        Quantitaive analysis of fossils assemblages<br />-        Applications: examples of paleoenviromental/paleoceanographic and paleoclimatic reconstructions based on foraminifera and molluscs.<br /> 

Full programme

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Bibliography

<br />1)     Brenchley P.J. & Harper D.A.T., 1998. Palaeoecology: ecosystem, environments and evolution. Chapman & Hall.<br />2)     Goldring R., 1991. Fossils in the field. Information potential and analysis. Longman Scientific &Technical.<br />3)     Raffi S. & Serpagli E., 1993. Introduzione alla Paleontologia. Utet.<br />4)     Murray J.W., 1993. Ecology and paleoecology of benthic foraminifera. Longman Scientific &Technical.<br />5)     Pinet P.R., 1998. Invitation to Oceanography. Jones & Bartlett.<br />6)     Odum E.P., 1988. Basi di Ecologia. Piccin Editore.

Teaching methods

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Assessment methods and criteria

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Other information

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