INSTRUCTOR:  Dr. P. David Polly, GY 524A; 855-7994; pdpolly@indiana.edu office hours MW 12:05–1:00 PM and by appointment

AIs: Anne Kort, GY505 , aekort@iu.edu, office hours W 12:30-2:30 pm
Ricardo Ely, GY 515, rcely@iu.edu, office hours Th 12:30-2:30 pm

COURSE OBJECTIVES:  The objectives of the lecture and laboratory sessions are to increase your understanding of three major themes:  (1) the origin and evolution of vertebrates, including dinosaurs and their distant relatives the fish, amphibians and amniotes, and their recent relatives the birds; (2) geography and climate of the Earth during the evolution of these groups but especially during the time of the dinosaurs and birds; and (3) dinosaur morphology, phylogeny, evolution, paleobiology, paleoecology, and extinction.  Through the lecture and lab exercises you will gain an increased awareness of the dynamic history of our planet and an understanding of how we infer this history from the evidence in the geological and fossil records.  You will also gain practical knowledge about the vertebrate skeleton applicable to our own anatomy and develop transferrable skills in logic and inference.  The scientific method, including quantitative and qualitative approaches, will be explored.

G114 carries IUB GenEd N&M credit – Natural Science, COLL (CASE) N&M Breadth of Inquiry credit.

STUDENT PREPARATION: Lectures and labs are the most important part of the course.  Attend each lecture, take notes, engage fully in each lab, and ask questions – do these and you will be on the right track.  This course has a lot of new terminology (names of bones, names of dinosaur groups, names of geological ages), but the concepts are fairly easy.  Consequently, memorizing and reviewing the terms will get you a long way.  You are only responsible for terms used in the lectures and labs, not the additional ones in the textbook.  The textbook should be viewed as a supplement to the lectures and labs – doing the reading is important because it reinforces material and helps provide depth and breadth, but exams will be based on material covered in lectures and labs.

The objectives of the course will be achieved if you remember facts, understand the meaning of material presented in lecture and textbook.  Apply your knowledge to solving geologic problems during lecture and lab and analyze topics by breaking them down and understanding the relationship among the parts. You will have practice in each of these steps during both lecture and lab.

TEXT:  Assigned readings are from the following required textbook

Fastovsky, D. E. and D. B. Weishampel.  2016.  Dinosaurs, A Concise Natural History, Third Edition. Cambridge University Press.

CLASS MEETING TIMES:  Lectures are Monday and Wednesday, 11:15 am-12:05 pm in GY 126.  Labs are Tuesday 5:45-7:40 PM, Wednesday 1:25-3:20 PM, 3:35-5:30 PM and 5:45-7:40 PM in GY 522.  You are required to attend both lectures and the lab for which you are registered.

GRADES (as percent of final grade):

Exams                                     65%
    Midterm 1 = 100 pts
    Midterm 2 = 100 pts
    Final Exam = 150 pts
In-Lecture Quizzes (x4)           10%
Labs (x14)                                25% 

Your final grade for the course will be based on scores from 3 exams, in-lecture quizzes, and laboratory assignments. Each exam is comprehensive and will include material presented from the beginning of the semester.  Laboratory sessions have weekly assignments that must be submitted by the specified deadline, normally the end of each lab session. Assignments will be usually be graded before your next lab session.  A missed lecture exam will require official documentation to substantiate the absence and can be made-up only at the discretion of the professor. There are 14 labs for which assignments are due throughout the semester.