James Madison University Departments of Biology and Geology SYLLABUS - BIOLOGY/GEOLOGY 405 http://geollab.jmu.edu/Fichter/GeoBio405/index.html VERTEBRATE PALEONTOLOGY SPRING, 2001 CREDIT HOURS: 3 BUILDING/ROOM: 209 Miller TIME: MWF 11:15-12:05 INSTRUCTOR: Lynn S. Fichter, Professor of Geology OFFICE: 233 Miller OFFICE PHONE: 6531 E-MAIL: [email protected] OFFICE HOURS: MW 10-11 TT 8-10; By appointment; LABORATORY: The laboratory consists of learning the bones in a number of vertebrate skulls and a skeleton and is done independently with the help of study guides. FINAL EXAM: Friday, May 4, 10:30-12:30 TEXTS: k Benton, Michael J., 1997, Vertebrate Paleontology, Chapman and Hall k Notebook of Lecture Illustrations - Copy Center k Handbook of the Vertebrate Skull and Skeleton - Copy Center LABORATORY VOUCHERS: This semester the university is assessing a charge for chemicals and other consumable items used in laboratory courses. Consequently, during the first two weeks of classes, each student in this course must obtain a paid “laboratory voucher” from the bookstore. Failure to obtain a voucher will lead to administrative withdrawal. L.S. Fichter, Spring, 2001 Syllabus 1 Bio/Geol 405 Vertebrate Paleontology THE BREADTH OF VERTEBRATE PALEONTOLOGY Vertebrate paleontology is a bastard science. It is wholly accepted by neither the geologists nor the zoologists. Yet, its proper study is dependent on knowledge and understanding of both. Even within the study of paleontology itself there is little contact between invertebrate and vertebrate paleontologists, not to mention paleobotanists. One important reason is that the specialized training for each discipline begins early and diverges rapidly. The practicing vertebrate paleontologist, for example, is absolutely dependent on thorough and solid training in comparative anatomy, embryology, genetics, physiology and vertebrate zoology, not to mention geology subjects and statistics. Invertebrate paleontology, on the other hand, is more often used for dating rocks and is thus associated with biostratigraphy and other geological subjects. Paleobotanists, naturally, associate with botany departments, far removed from geology and zoology. But one way or another, paleontology is an interdisciplinary science, drawing on specialized knowledge from many disciplines - jack of all trades, master of none. In this class you do not require all the highly specialized knowledge a practicing vertebrate paleontologist needs. Instead as the semester proceeds I will introduce and develop whatever specific knowledge we need to understand the evolutionary debate in front of us at the moment. And, anyway, this class is a mixture of biology and geology majors and so what ever we talk about I usually have to explain biological concepts to the geologists and geological concepts to the biologists and in the process we all learn something new. THE DEPTH OF VERTEBRATE PALEONTOLOGY It used to be that many topics in evolutionary biology were pithy. That is, they were discussed in a few pages in a book, or there existed one or two papers on the subject. But not today. Nearly every interesting subject in paleontology and evolutionary biology has exploded in complexity. Where once there were a few pages of discussion, there now exist book-length expositions, often several, and a vast technical literature. There is hardly a group of vertebrates, early or late, that is not rich in diversity, and absolutely fascinating. Just to survey all the major fossil groups takes an entire semester, even without getting into their adaptations, lifestyles, and the interesting evolutionary problems they present. Where it was once possible to spend a leisurely class, or less, talking about everything important anyone had to say on a particular topic, these topics can now easily take many classes. The sum result is . one semester is not enough. I look back over old notes on certain topics and they comfortably took a class. When I revised my notes on these topics they easily expanded to several classes, before I panicked and struggled to get them down to only twice as much time as they used to take. But twice as much time is half as much time in a semester to talk about other subjects. L.S. Fichter, Spring, 2001 Syllabus 2 Bio/Geol 405 Vertebrate Paleontology There is no easy resolution to this problem; it exists in every subject. But I am interested in understanding, not memorization or superficial surveys, . and understanding takes time. My resolution to this problem is to do both less, and more. The less is fewer groups, fewer processes, fewer issues discussed. The more is more understanding, in more depth, about the subjects we do discuss. Some groups will be mentioned only in passing, and some groups we explore in detail, like the bony fishes, labrynthodont amphibians, and mammal-like reptiles. Atentative outline of the semester, based on the last time the course was taught, is at the back of the syllabus. But in broad outline it goes something like this. First, we begin with a discussion of principles of evolution, systematics, and classification. Second, this is followed by a survey of vertebrate evolution. That is, who gave rise to whom, when, and the basic classification of the vertebrates. Older paleontology courses would consist only of this, but for us it is only the beginning. Third, we then utilize the phylogeny and classification as a skeleton upon which to hang arguments of evolutionary biology. There are two parts to the study of the evolutionary biology of the vertebrates. On the one hand, we use the phylogeny to explore the processes of functional morphology, evolving organ systems, and biological adaptations to understand the evolution of the vertebrates. On the other hand, we examine the historical geology and paleoecology of this planet in an attempt to understand the environmental conditions which existed in the past and influenced the evolution of the vertebrates. Finally, we correlate and integrate all the information to obtain a coherent picture of how both the earth and the vertebrate animals living on it got to their present state. By that time the semester will be long since over. THE CURRENT STATE OF VERTEBRATE PALEONTOLOGY One of the problems with being a scientist is that nothing you know can be taken for certain. In fact, being a scientist leads to the disconcerting possibility that everything you thought you knew will turn out to be wrong. This truism has shaken up all the sciences in this century, and no less vertebrate paleontology. Jarvik says, "It is easy to see that (the) . more or less sophisticated family trees found in even the most modern literature are erroneous in fundamental respects." Indeed, animals formerly considered closely related are now viewed very suspiciously, and the traditional, thoroughly memorized, and well entrenched classifications are continuously being challenged and replaced by new and/or unfamiliar names. What is disconcerting about L.S. Fichter, Spring, 2001 Syllabus 3 Bio/Geol 405 Vertebrate Paleontology this is that the old, familiar fossils we thought we knew and understood, have a tendency to be reclassified, rearranged, and reinterpreted in ways that violate everything we were originally taught. And there are continuous new finds which do not neatly fit in with already known organisms, leading to further doubt and confusion. Furthermore, a number of controversial ideas which seriously question our traditional beliefs about the biology of fossil vertebrates have been proposed, and vigorously argued - amphibian origins, warm blooded dinosaurs, and the origin of birds to name a few. To be perfectly honest I find some of this disconcerting, and I am torn between wanting to hang on to the old and familiar, and teach it as if nothing has changed, and feeling an obligation to face the new and unknown, and struggle to revise major portions of this course. It is the second path I intend to follow. I realize that if I were to just make all the necessary changes, or not make them at all, you would not know the difference. Either you would learn the old names and theories, or the new, but since it is all equally unfamiliar it would probably be no big deal - except what you would learn would be outdated. But it is not as simple as that. First, many of the new ideas are quite involved and complicated and it will probably take me more than once through the course to make the transition. Some subjects, which in the past we only knew enough about to have a few pages devoted to them, have expanded to having entire books (often several) devoted to them. Many of these books have relatively recent copyright dates on them. I try to keep up with these, but some lectures I may end up writing as I give them. Or I may suddenly understand something in a new way in the middle of a lecture, at which time my knowledge grows but the lecture may descend to chaos. I hope you hang in there with me in those cases; I will make it all right. Second, our understanding of vertebrate evolution changes rapidly as new discoveries and studies are published. The discovery of one new fossil can change dramatically the way we look at a group - like the discovery of early amphibians with more than 5 fingers and toes, and the dinosaur velociraptors. Likewise, several new books published recently have strongly influenced the way I look at some topics, and I plan to incorporate those ideas. What is gospel today is passe tomorrow. Third, my job is not so much to teach vertebrate paleontology as to teach the science of evolutionary biology, and these major paradigm shifts are the essence of the scientific process and I need to explore them and you need to understand them. So a complicated subject keeps getting more complicated, but with many more possibilities.