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The Open University

Life in the Palaeozoic

The Open University via OpenLearn

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Overview

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Fossils are a glimpse into the distant past and fascinate young and old alike. This free course, Life in the Palaeozoic, will introduce you to the explosion of evolution that took place during the Palaeozoic era. You will look at the many different types of creatures that existed at that time and how they managed to evolve to exist on land.

Syllabus

  • Introduction
  • Learning outcomes
  • 1 The Cambrian explosion
  • 1 The Cambrian explosion
  • 1.1 A burst of evolution
  • 1.2 The Burgess Shale
  • 1.3 An overview of animal phyla
  • 1.4 The origin of the vertebrates
  • 2 The Ordovician seas
  • 2 The Ordovician seas
  • 3 The Silurian Period and the invasion of the land
  • 3 The Silurian Period and the invasion of the land
  • 4 Life in the Silurian sea
  • 4 Life in the Silurian sea
  • 4.1 Trilobites
  • 4.1.1 More on trilobites
  • 4.2 Crinoids
  • 4.3 Corals
  • 4.4 Other Wenlock Limestone fossils
  • 5 The Devonian Period
  • 5 The Devonian Period
  • 6 Vertebrates move onto land
  • 6 Vertebrates move onto land
  • 6.1 A difficult evolutionary transition
  • 6.2 An outline of vertebrate evolution
  • Conclusion
  • Acknowledgements

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4.9 rating at OpenLearn based on 15 ratings

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