UE Evolutionary paleobiology

Head: Laurent Viriot, Cyril Charles

6 ECTS credits

Paleobiology is not restricted to the study of fossils, it is an ongoing effort to understand the history of life on Earth and the biology of extinct species by investigating the fossil record using advanced ideas and methods imported from life sciences.

Over the past 20 years, paleobiology resolutely moved towards multidisciplinary researches, thus building many bridges between biology and paleontology. By inviting the most famous European specialists of these new and multidisciplinary approaches, but also traditional field paleontologists, this course explores the various aspects of the modern evolutionary paleobiology and allows students better integrating the scientific challenges of this discipline.

A part of the conferences is aimed at presenting newly discovered crucial fossils that allow better understanding mass extinction events, ancient climate variations, and the origin and evolution of major groups (for instance: early plants, early metazoans, early vertebrates, dinosaurs, hominids,...) The various speakers of this section also show many aspects of field activities.

A second part of the conferences presents various technical advances and non-invasive methods that bring crucial information in current paleobiological investigations such as ancient DNA, shape morphometrics, microtomographic-based 3D imaging, isotope geochemistry, etc...

The last part of the conferences shows that many biological fields integrate the fossil record as part of the available information, as it is the case for example in evolutionary developmental biology (Evo-Devo) and molecular genetics.
 

This course is aimed at all students who shall pursue in life sciences with an evolutionary perspective.