Course overview

How did dinosaurs become so dominant and why did they disappear so dramatically? What changes allowed life on our planet to leave the seas and begin to populate the land? This course looks at the Earth’s history through the fossil remains left by its past inhabitants and guides you towards answers to these and many more fascinating questions. You’ll learn to find, extract and examine fossil remains in the field and laboratory, plus reconstruct their lives and interrelationships with the other organisms that shared their time on our planet.

Integrating geology and biology, the course provides a fascinating extra dimension to both disciplines, supported by the study of diverse topics such as:

• palaeontology and the history of life
• ecology
• oceanography
• plate tectonics
• sedimentology
• terrestrial and marine ecosystems

You’ll be taught by some of the world’s expert researchers who have been involved in some of the most exciting dinosaur and other fossil finds of recent years. Several of these have come from our own doorstep on the Isle of Wight.

Professional accreditation

The course is fully accredited by the Geological Society of London, the professional body that oversees geoscience in the UK.

Course content

In the first year, our BSc (Hons) Palaeontology shares many of the same units with BSc (Hons) Geology, but includes a Biodiversity and Evolution unit taught in the School of Biological Sciences. Palaeontology students study a mix of palaeontological and geological units in their second and third years.

Year one

You will take the following units:

• How the Earth Works: an introduction to all aspects of geoscience.
• Earth Materials: the description and interpretation of minerals and igneous, metamorphic and sedimentary rocks.
• Earth History and Life: an introduction to the study of past life on Earth and its evolution, and geological time and the rock record.
• Quantitative Methods: mathematical and IT skills and techniques for the geosciences.
• Science for Earth Systems: aspects of physics and chemistry used in the geosciences.
• Biodiversity and Evolution: an introduction to aspects of biology for palaeontology students

Year two

You will take the following units:

• Vertebrate Palaeontology: skeletal anatomy and histology, origin of the vertebrates, and an introduction to the main vertebrate groups.
• Sedimentology and Palaeoenvironments: how to use evidence from the rocks to interpret ancient environments – obviously vital for any palaeontologist. This unit includes several sessions on trace fossils.
• Palaeontological Techniques: includes practical skills such as fossil preparation and illustration, using a scanning electron microscope, together with the techniques that we use to interpret the fossil record.
• Palaeobotany, Micropalaeontology and Project Preparation: the evolution of plants, an introduction to the main microfossil groups and their uses, and how to plan a successful independent project.
• Palaeontology: palaeontological principles developed primarily via study of invertebrate groups, including ammonites and trilobites. This unit includes residential fieldwork in Wales and the Welsh Borders.
• Professional Skills for Palaeontologists: fieldwork (including mapping), largely in Dorset, careers for palaeontologists, and designing your own museum exhibition.

Year three

Topics that you will be able to study include the following:

• Taphonomy: the study of fossil preservation: how and why are fossils preserved; what conditions are needed for exceptional preservation; why is the fossil record biased?
• Biostratigraphy: how can we use fossils to date rocks and why is this so very important?
• Vertebrate Palaeontology 2: dinosaurs and mammals (including hominids).
• Evolution and the Fossil Record: includes analysing evolutionary relationships using cladistics, and study of the Cambrian explosion and mass extinctions.
• Palaeontology Project: an independent research project devised by you (with advice from your tutor), based upon field and museum and/or laboratory work.
• Basin Analysis and Petroleum Geology: palaeontology plays a vital role in exploration for oil and gas – this unit provides an essential geological understanding of hydrocarbon generation and exploration.
• Oceans, Climates and Environments: what techniques can we use to determine environmental variables such as salinity and temperature? How (and why) has the Earth’s climate changed through geological time?
• Overseas field trip (optional): this will be to Germany to study some of the world’s most famous fossil localities and their exceptional fossils (includes museum visits).

Career prospects

Students who took our BSc (Hons) Palaeobiology and Evolution (which has its last intake in 2011), have gone on to a variety of careers, in many cases after subsequent postgraduate study (MSc or PhD). These have been in museums, as wardens on the Jurassic coast of Dorset, in teaching, building models of pterosaurs for science exhibitions, on television and in the oil industry. It is hoped that graduates from the BSc (Hons) Palaeontology will go on to a similar range of careers.

Facilities and features

The School is fully equipped with geological and geochemical laboratories including X-ray diffraction, X-ray fluorescence spectrometry, scanning electron microscopy, ICPMS and digital photomicrography. It is our policy that you receive practical experience of using this equipment whenever possible. In addition, we have state-of-the-art computing facilities with an extensive suite of specialist geoscience software.

You will also have access to University-wide resources, including our student support services, computer suites and our extended library, which houses an excellent collection of journals and books.

Fieldwork

Fieldwork is an integral and essential component of any geoscience degree course. Although field-based learning is intensive, needing you to draw on a wide range of theoretical and practical knowledge, it is immensely rewarding and, above all, fun. The University contributes towards the transport and accommodation costs of all compulsory fieldwork. We ensure that, wherever possible, degree courses incorporate overseas fieldwork, giving you beneficial experience of working in a non-UK environment and minimising the risk of losing valuable field time to the weather.

All students undertake a project that normally involves a period of independent field study prior to the start of the final year. Whilst not everyone will be in a position to be so adventurous, past students have successfully arranged projects in California, Canada, Spain, Trinidad, Australia, Brazil and Hawaii. Exotic project proposals, however, must meet our academic, logistic and safety criteria.

Entry requirements

View all the entry requirements for BSc (Hons) Palaeontology for the academic year 2013/14 (opens in new window).