MASS EXTINCTIONS: DEATH AND REBIRTH IN T

Mass Extinctions are caused by catastrophic shifts in the earth's climate, solid earth, and life systems. These major inflection points in the history of life leave lasting impacts and require study across a variety of disciplines. In this course we will use these 'system breakdowns' to take a bird's eye view of the history of life. We'll study what happens when vast magmatic provinces spew gases into a darkened sky and try to pick up the pieces as asteroid impacts desecrate the world around them. Along the way, we'll consider how our own actions have the potential to shape the world around us, and the nature of our relationship with an ever-changing earth system. Over the course of the semester students will practice integrating paleontological data from a variety of sources to study both evolutionary hypotheses and the causes of climate change in deep time. We will incorporate foundational ideas from geochronology and stratigraphy as a group, to place fossils into a broader geologic context. Students from all backgrounds who have taken at least one of the three "Systems" courses or Dinosaurs and the History of Life are welcome.