DEPARTMENT OF EARTH AND ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES
CORE STUDIES 3315
CRISES IN THE HISTORY OF LIFE
COURSE OUTLINE
Fall 2013
Prof. J.A. Chamberlain, Jr.
Office: 5312N
Phone: 718-951-5000 x 2885
email: johnc@brooklyn.cuny.edu
Lecture Instructor: Prof. John Chamberlain
Office hours: by appointment only
Core 3315: Core 3315 is a 3 credit, lecture format course that is part of the general education core
requirements of Brooklyn College. Core 3315 satisfies the Upper Tier Scientific Inquiry requirement of
the College’s Core Curriculum.
Course Description - Our sections of Core will deal with the evolution of the Earth and the evolution of
Life. We will focus on watershed events in earth history that have controlled the development of life on
Earth, and have produced the modern biosphere, i.e., life as we know it today. Our approach will be to
examine a few such critical events, e.g., the mass extinction 65 million years ago that wiped out nonavian dinosaurs and set the stage for the expansion of modern mammals like us. Our aim will be to see
what these events say about the nature of organisms, both modern and ancient, about their reliance on the
physical aspects of the world, and on each other. When we are finished with the course, you will have an
understanding of how life has unfolded on Earth over geologic time and of the processes that have
directed this unfolding. And, you will gain a sense of what is likely to happen as the world continues into
the future. Not the least of our aims will be to gain perspective on our place in the natural world.
Course Work: The work involved in this course includes the following:
1) Lecture: slide-illustrated presentations on earth science and issues in the history of life ; two exams
described below.
Course Resources: The lecture component of the course is supported by several study tools.
1) Paleocore website: I have assembled a website that contains all of the slides used during class to
illustrate and highlight the lectures. It contains in picture form all the basic information that we deal with
in class. If used diligently, it will be a valuable asset in taking informative notes during class, and it will
be very helpful in studying for exams. Access data for this website are as follows:
URL: http://brooklyncollegegeology.com/paleocore/
Username: paleocore
Password: dinosaur
2) Textbook: No textbook is required for this course. However, if you feel more comfortable having a
textbook on which to rely, I recommend the book listed below. I have used it as a text in this course in
past semesters but because it is expensive (about $200 at the College bookstore) and because student
surveys done last year revealed that most people enrolled in the course found the Paleocore website to be
much more helpful than the book, I no longer require it. However, the book does cover the subjects we
will focus on during the semester, and complements the material discussed in class.
Historical Geology; 7th edition; 2013. R. Wicander & J.S. Monroe, Brooks/ColePubl., Cengage
Learning. ISBN: 978-1-111-98729-9
Because it is not required, I have not ordered the book for the College Bookstore. If you are interested in
obtaining a copy, you may do so via the Barnes & Noble or Amazon.com websites, and probably other
websites as well. You may be able to obtain a new or used copy, or an earlier edition, that will be much
cheaper than the $200 Bookstore price. I saw a used copy of a 5th edition for $6.50 on Amazon. An
earlier edition is fine, although the page numbers given below for recommended reading are for the 7th
edition, and may not apply to earlier editions. Barnes & Noble has the 7th ed for $166, and a rental for
$66. The web addresses are as follows.
Barnes & Nobel: http://www.bn.com.
Amazon.com: http://www.amazon.com
If you decide to get a this book, I would encourage you to obtain a copy as cheaply as possible.
3) Additional Reference Books: You might want to consider the idea of obtaining other books to use as
reference material during the semester. If so, I highly recommend the following:
The History of Life; 4th edition; 1991. Richard Cowen, Wiley Publ., ISBN: 9781405117562
This book was used as a textbook in earlier versions of this course done a decade ago or more. It is an
unsurpassed introduction to many aspects of the history of life, but it does not cover basic geology and
geologic time very well, i.e., it is not written as an introductory text. This has presented problems in the
past, especially at the beginning of the semester. However, it is a highly readable treatment of all of the
historical issues that we deal with during the semester, so finding an old copy for yourself online or from
some other source should prove highly beneficial.
4) Useful Web Sites: There are several web sites in addition to the Paleocore course website that you
might find helpful. Among these are:
http://mygeologypage.ucdavis.edu/cowen/historyoflife/. This is a website assembled by the
author of the History of Life. It compliments the book, and updates it through about 2008. It also
contains numerous links to the sciences of paleontology and geology.
http://depthome.brooklyn.cuny.edu/geology/. This is the website of my department. It introduces
the Earth & Environmental Sciences Department, describes the earth sciences, and contains links
to web sites that you might find valuable. Links to Core labs on this website do not apply to the
this course, however.
There are many other web sites that might prove valuable to you. But keep in mind that any blockhead
can put up a web site; and that most web sites dealing with matters of evolution, earth history, extinction,
and related issues are in fact the creations of blockheads. They contain mostly erroneous mis-information
and wishful thinking, often neatly packaged, but still off the mark and misleading. It is often not easy to
spot such web sites, so be careful if you decide to surf the web for info relating to topics we talk about in
class. Be especially diligent if you decide to use the internet as a resource in studying for exams. I reject
outright the explanation, “but I found it on the internet”, as a valid argument when you ask me why I gave
you a 0 for your incorrect answer to a test question. You will still get a 0. If you insist on going this
route, your first and only web site choices should be those that are clearly associated with a reputable
university or museum. But even here one needs to be wary. In cases were there is uncertainty about the
reputability of a web site, I will be the judge.
Grading: Your grade for this course will consist of the results you receive on two exams plus an
effort/deportment component as described below. The tests will consist of short answer questions
covering material discussed in class. The first exam will be given during the middle of the semester. The
second exam will be given during finals week in December. The two tests will be weighted equally in
calculating a grade for the lecture portion of the course.
Extra Credit Work: There will be NO OPPORTUNITY FOR MAKE-UP OR EXTRA CREDIT
WORK in the course. So don’t ask. Make sure that you take the two exams when they are offered
and that you do well on them.
Attendance: CUNY regulations require that student attendance records be kept. I expect that all students
will attend class regularly, and arrive for each class meeting in a timely fashion.
Effort & Deportment: You are encouraged to ask questions and raise issues for class discussion. Also, I
expect all students in this class to act in a civil fashion during class time. This means a respectful silence
during the lecture itself, i.e., no talking to friends, no eating or drinking, no reading books, newspapers,
etc., and NO ELECTRONIC DEVICES. Any electronic devices you have with you must be turned off and
put away before the class begins. Up to 10% of your grade depends on compliance with these points. I
will apply this component positively or negatively as appropriate.
Archaeopteryx
Solnhofen Limestone
Eichstätt, Germany,
Middle Jurassic
Syllabus of Lecture Subjects and Recommended Readings:
The following is a list of topics covered in this course. The reading indicated in the list below refers to
chapters and pages from Wicander & Monroe, 7th ed.
WEEKS 1 & 2: Earth Materials
A. Minerals (page 18-22)
B. Rocks (page 22-35)
C. Fossils & Fossilization (page 89-91)
WEEKS 3 & 4: Earth Processes
A. Geologic Time (chapter 4, page 92-95)
B. Plate Tectonics (chapter 3)
C. Evolution (chapter 7)
D. Extinction & Radiation (page 141-142, 247-249, 316-317)
WEEK 5: Crisis #1: Origin of Earth & Life (page 4-9,150-153,159-166)
A. Origin of the Earth and Solar System
B. Origin of the atmosphere and ocean
C. Early Earth Environments
D. Origin of Life
E. The Oxygen Revolution
WEEK 6: Crisis #2: Snowball Earth & the Origin of Animals (page 178-189)
A. Pre-animal biology and environments - what made animal life possible
B. Snowball Earth
C. Ediacara Fauna - the first animals
D. How did the appearance of animals change the biosphere
WEEK 7: Midterm Exam
WEEKS 8 & 9: Crisis #3: Cambrian Radiation(page 233-243)
Part 1: Modernization of the Biosphere
A. What is the Cambrian Radiation
B. Importance of the Cambrian Radiation
C. Causes of the Cambrian Radiation
D. Effects on the biosphere
Part 2: A Trip to the Burgess Shale
A. Field, British Columbia
B. Walcott’s quarry
C. The “weird” Burgess animals
D. Lifestyles of the Burgess animals
WEEK 10: Crisis #4: Animals Invade the Land (chapter 13)
A. Origin of Land Plants and Animals
Middle Jurassic
Juvenile Tyrannosaurus
Hell Creek Formation
Faith, South Dakota
Late Cretaceous
B. Origin of Forests and Land Vertebrates
C. Adaptative Solutions for Life on Land
WEEK 11: Crisis #5: Vertebrate Final Solution (chapter 13)
A. What group of vertebrates made the transition to land lifestyles
B. Were the first land dwelling vertebrates fully terrestrial
C. What was the vertebrate “Ultimate Solution” to life on land
WEEKS 12 & 13: Crisis #6: Mammals, Dinosaurs, and the K/T Mass Extinction (chapter 15)
Part 1: The Mesozoic World
A. Climate
B. Geography
Part 2: Mesozoic Animals
A. Mammals
B. Dinosaurs
C. Mammal-dinosaur interactions
Part 3: The Cretaceous-Tertiary Mass Extinction
A. Cause & kill mechanism
B. Effects on Biosphere
C. Mass Extinction & Contingency in Evolution
WEEK 14: Crisis #7: Human Origins (chapter 19)
A. Cenozoic climate change
B. Climate induced change in plant ecosystems
C. Recovery from the K/T Mass Extinction
D. Primates: Prosimians & Anthropoids
E. Hominid Evolution
F. Humans
1. Homo habilis
2. Homo erectus
3. Homo heidelbergensis
4. Homo neanderthalensis
5. Homo sapiens (us)
FINALS WEEK: Endterm Exam
Anomalocaris
Burgess Shale
Field, British Columbia
Middle Cambrian