Prerequisite: GY315
Course status: Core
Credit Rating: 12 credits
Total hours spent: 120 hours [45 hours lectures, 30 hours practical, 15 hours Assignments, and 30 hours independent study]
Course Objective(s):
o To introduce students to basic paleontological concepts and equip them with the techniques to describe major fossil groups and their relevance in geology.
o To introduce students to the application of microfossils in oil and gas exploration.
o To equip them with skills of relative age determination, stratigraphic correlation and microscope experience for identification of common microfossil groups.
Expected Learning Outcomes
By the end of the course the students should be able to:
o Describe the paleontological concepts pertaining to organism's evolution and fossilization
o Recognise materials and sedimentary deposits capable of preserving fossils
o Identify and classify common encountered fossil groups using the existing taxonomy and use them relative dating of sedimentary formations.
o Apply biostratigraphic zonations to microfossil abundance data and use it to interpret relative ages.
o Explain how biostratigraphic dataset is generated and used in conjunction with sequence and seismic stratigraphy.
o Apply biozonation in solving problems related to petroleum exploration.
Course content
General paleontological concepts: subject definition and its scope, introduction to taphonomy (death, burial, fossilization and uplift/ erosion), uses of fossils (dating and paleoenvironment indicators) , ecological factors that determine preservation of fossils, fossils as evidence of evolution (Darwinian evolution theory), organic evolution (major events in the history of life).Systematic descriptive palaeontology: morphological features, systematic and stratigraphic occurrence of significant phyla: selected invertebrate macrofossils phyla: porifera, cnidarians,bryozoans, brachiopods, molluscs, echinoderms, graptolites, arthropods. Selected vertebrate phyla: jawless fishes, tetrapods, reign of the reptiles, bird evolution, rise of the mammals, the line of humans. Fossil plants and basic palynology. Microfossils. Trace fossils.
Systematic micropaleontology (biology, shell organization and classification): organic walled microfossils (palynomorphs, acritarchs, chitinozoa, dinoflagellates).Inorganic microfossil (microforaminifera, diatoms, conodonts and ostracodes), preparation techniques. Stratigraphical range charts: First downhole occurrence (FAD), Last downhole occurrences (LAD). Numerical methods (quantitative micropaleontology): frequency polygons, abundance charts and ternary diagrams. Methods of stratigraphic correlation by microfossils. Paleoecology and paleoenvironmental reconstruction, global paleobiogeography. Limits and advantages of micro fossils.
Assessment: Coursework: 40%, Final Examination: 60%.
Key Textbooks:
1. Clarkson E. (2001). Invertebrate Paleontology and Evolution 4th ed. Blackwell science.
2. Nield E.W. and Tucker V. C. (1985). Paleontology: an introduction 1st ed. Pergamon press.
3. Taylor N, Taylor E, Krings M (2009). Paleobotany: the biology and evolution of fossil plants 2nd. Academic press.
4. Sinha, D.K. (2006).Micropaleontology: Application of Stratigraphy and Paleoceanography.
5. Haq, B.U. and Boersma, A. (1998). Introduction to Marine Micropaleontology, 2nd Edition, Elsevier Science.
6. Armstrong, H. and Brasier, M. (2005). Microfossils. Blackwell Publishers.
7. Traverse, A (2008). Paleopalynology (2nd Ed.) Springer V.