Earth and Environmental Sciences (SEES)
Palaeobiology and Evolution
For most of us - staff and students alike, fieldwork is one of the major attractions of the subject. We aim to introduce you to fieldwork in your first year and then develop your specialist techniques of data collection in the second year. You then undertake you own palaeobiological research project and finally we take you on an integrated, project based field course in your final year. These form part of an accredited degree course and will provide the practical field-based skills necessary for a career in the palaeobiology.
Our fieldwork programme is based currently around two foreign and one UK residential field courses. These are supplemented by a range of short outings and day trips which are linked to particular units, some compulsory and some optional. The fieldwork initially lays down the necessary geological foundations and then becomes increasingly palaeobiological.
Residential courses
Level 1
Central Spain: this compulsory trip 70 Km north of Madrid provides training in geological mapping as well as general geology and palaeontology.
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Spain Fieldtrip Slideshow [Acrobat (.pdf) - Mon, 16 Feb 2009 08:52:00 GMT] |
Level 2
Mid-Wales and Shropshire: this compulsory trip provides training in palaeobiological data collection and interpretation in some of the most fossiliferous rocks in the UK.
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Shropshire & Mid Wales Fieldtrip Slideshow [Acrobat (.pdf) - Fri, 20 Feb 2009 15:33:00 GMT] |
Level 3
Germany and Austria: collect from the famous Solnhofen quarries where Archaeopteryx was found. We take you to the World Heritage Site at Messel to collect in strata containing 40 million year old horses, pythons, bats and birds. And that's only two of the places you will visit in this learning tour of the most famous sites in Europe.
Other field work
We lead short trips to places that include the Isle of Wight, Lulworth Cove, Lyme Regis, Barton-on-Sea, Osmington Mills, Beer and other local sites.