Faculty of Science

Objectives

The course examines the origin of sediments, sedimentary Processes, depositional environments and the branches of palaeontology, morphological palaeontology including palaeoecology and evolutionary palaeontology as seen from plant and animal fossils.

Contents

The source of sediments, methods of transportation and depositional environments. Aspects of marine rocks and transgressive and regressive sequences. Relationship between fauna and sedimentation rate. Trace fossils. Basic principles of analysis of fossils. Modes of fossilization. The major fossils phyla and their uses. Characteristics of invertebrate and plant fossils. Microfossils. Fossil evolution and palaeontological evidence. Association and adatptation of fossils in the Palaeozoic, Mesozoic and Cenozoic Eras Stages in the evolution of marine and continental ecosystems as shown by the fossil record.