This interactive courseware module shows how information about past climates and environments can be deduced from rocks and fossils. It combines text, diagrams, animations and user-interactions to provide a comprehensive introduction to this important topic.
An overview of those aspects of the palaeoenvironment to be studied, what fossils are, the way fossils are used and the rock types in which they are commonly found. The principle of uniformitarianism is outlined and biostratigraphy is defined.
A brief introduction to present-day climatic belts and the physical factors that distort the simple picture now and in the past. The climatic consequences of continental drift and the way fossils and sedimentary rocks can be used as palaeoclimatic indicators are described.
Ways in which marine life is affected by parameters like salinity, temperature, light, water depth, oxygen and sedimentation rate are outlined. The concept of limiting factors and environmental constraints is emphasised and the relationship between location and energy illustrated. Examples are given of the way palaeoenvironmental reconstructions are carried out.
This section describes the concept of preservation potential and those processes affecting organisms after death which determine whether they are preserved as fossils. Preservation of hard and soft parts are covered as well as necrolytic processes, biostratinomy and diagenesis.
The concept of adaptive functional morphology is outlined and how the morphology of fossilised organisms relates to the environments in which they lived. Bivalves, trilobites, foraminifera and dinosaurs are used as examples.
This section shows how information about the palaeoenvironment can be obtained by considering communities and other groupings rather than individuals. The concepts of food chains, food webs and facies are introduced and examples given of palaeocommunities.
An explanation is given of what trace fossils are, how they are formed and preserved. Their use as indicators of specific environments is described. Locomotion, grazing and dwelling traces are used to show how information about the palaeoenvironment can be built up step-by-step using trace fossils.
Navigation around the module is by means of buttons along the base of the screen and a menu system. An explanation of how the module works is accessed from the main menu. Words and terms which maybe unfamiliar are highlighted and explanations are given when they are clicked.
| Arc Magmatism | Aspects of Earth Resources | Basic Geochemistry | Basic Petrography | Basic Skills for Earth Sciences | Crystallography | Dynamic Stratigraphy: Controls and Products | Exploring the Shallow Subsurface using Geophysics | Ocean Crust and Ophiolites | Optical Mineralogy | Petrogenesis of Granitic Rocks | Phase Diagrams in Igneous Systems | Radiogenic Isotopes in Geological Sciences | Rock Deformation and Geological Structures | Systematic Palaeontology: the Phylum Mollusca | Using Stereonets in Geology | Visualising Geology in 3D |
