GEOS 3332 Age of Dinosaurs Syllabus

Page last modified: 1/10/06

Dr. Homer Montgomery Office hours: T 8:00-9:30; W 8:30-11:00

972.883.2480 - office
mont@utdallas.edu Other times by appointment or just drop by my office.
469.951.8110 - mobile
Office: FN 3.308A If in doubt about anything, contact me.

GEOS 3332 COURSE DESCRIPTION AND GOALS

Age of Dinosaurs is an introductory survey of the anatomy, physiology, life-styles, population, and evolution of
dinosaurs and swimming and flying reptiles, as well as Mesozoic climates and basic Earth history of the “Age of
Dinosaurs”. There is one (optional attendance) field trip to Dinosaur Valley State Park. GEOS 3132 is a separate
and optional one hour lab course.

COURSE FORMAT
GEOS 3332 is a WebCT-assisted course. Active participation is required in order to make a top grade.
Attendance in class each week is highly recommended, but not required. All students must be in class for the
midterm and final exams. Online quizzes are available on WebCT (see below). Questions cover information in
the text as well as material linked on the syllabus. All students must participate in the discussion forum on
WebCT.

PREREQUISITES
No prerequisites required.

Week "Thursday"
Topic Text Chapters
of readings
Jan 10 Taphonomy
Introduction, Mesozoic Era, Geologic time
1, 2 Paleoclimate
Quiz Thursday
Mesozoic
Jan 17 Cladistics
Evolution, Cladograms
3 Dinosaurs and
Quiz Thursday
birds
Jan 24 Classification
Vertebrates, Dinosauria
4, 5 Early
Quiz Thursday
vertebrates
Jan 31 Fast track
Ornithischia
6, 7, 8, 9, 10 evolution
Quiz Thursday
Ornithischia
Feb 7 Sauropods
11 Sauropods
Quiz Thursday
Feb 14 Theropods online
Dr. Montgomery will be in Kenya 12 Theropods
Exam review will be online
Feb 21 Midterm exam
Feb 28 Froude numbers and locomotion
13, 14
Quiz Thursday
Mar 7 Spring Break
Mar 14 No class. Dr. Montgomery will be in Africa.
Quiz Thursday
Mar 21 Dinosaurian biology Physiology
15
Quiz Thursday Histology
Mar 25 Field trip to Dinosaur Valley State Park (leave UTD
at 7 a.m. and return by 2 p.m.)
Mar 28 Patterns of evolution/extinction
16, 18
Quiz Thursday
Apr 4 Pterosaurs
Pterosaurs
Quiz Thursday
Apr 11 Marine reptiles
Exam review
Apr 18 Final exam

TEXT (required)
The Evolution and Extinction of Dinosaurs
Fastovsky and Weishampel
2005
Cambridge

QUIZZES and EXAMS

Quizzes are available on WebCT from 6 a.m. each Thursday until midnight on Friday. All are open-book. All of
the questions are rather tricky and thought provoking.
The midterm and final exams are given in class and are comprehensive. Both exams are of a short answer
format.

COURSE GRADE (500 possible points)

Online Quizzes: 150 points (mostly short answer with a few multiple choice)
Participation in the online discussion forum (at least 30 postings relevant to the course): 50
Exam 1: 100 points
Exam 2: 200 points (comprehensive)

FIELD TRIP
Field trip participation is optional. No refunds are offered if you choose not to attend the field trip. The field
trip actually costs more per student to run than is covered by each fee. Thus, the fund works something like a
social security system with many paying for those who actually go. Those who choose not to go this semester
may certainly go the next. There are two required field trip forms: A, B. The forms are both official UTD Word
documents.

INCOMPLETES
I do not give incompletes without proof of major medical or similar serious problems. A suitable explanatory
letter is required.

STATEMENTS
In this course students will conform to the University rules for academic honesty. For further information see
http://www.utdallas.edu/student/slife/dishonesty.html

Information from this course can be provided to students with disabilities through University services. For more
information see
http://www.utdallas.edu/student/slife/hcsvc.html