Course Syllabus

Biology 409: Extinction: bad genes or bad luck?

Fall 2017 Tu Th 11-12:15 PM

Felisa A. Smith, Professor of Biology

Office: Castetter Hall, Room 1462

Office Hours: Thursdays 1–2 PM or By Appointment

fasmith@unm.edu

Texts: Readings will be drawn from two books as well as the literature. The books are available at the bookstore (or via Amazon, of course).

• Raup, Dave. 1991. Extinction: bad genes or bad luck? W.W. Norton and Co.
• Taylor, Paul D. 2004. Extinctions in the history of life. Cambridge University Press
• Readings from the primary and secondary literature will be available via PDF. 

For those without a good understanding of the history of life, I suggest buying Stephen Jay Gould's The Book of Life (W.W. Norton Publisher 2001). This well-illustrated and easy to understand book can be ordered for about $2 (plus shipping) from Amazon, so I didn’t ask the bookstore to order it ($29.95).

Lectures: Many of society’s most pressing environmental problems have an analog in the past. This particularly true of the modern biodiversity crisis; although the causal mechanism is different, there have been many times in Earth history where extinctions happened. In this course, we will explore extinctions through the entire history of life on earth, with particular emphasis on the late Quaternary (the last 125,000 years) where hominins have played a big role.

I expect you to attend lectures and take your own notes. I will not post entire Power point presentations on the web or provide electronic copies, although you are welcome to come to my office and view lectures on my laptop if you have to miss class or need another look at something. I will, however, post important figures on the class blog. Learning should be interactive; thus, I welcome questions and encourage discussion. If there are things you do not understand, please ask for clarification. There are undoubtedly others who also will benefit.

Please note that it is your responsibility to request accommodations for individual learning needs. I will make reasonable attempts to accommodate students with disabilities, provided that such requests are made in a timely manner. For further information, talk to me or contact Student Support Services within the Center for Academic Program Support (277.3506).

Our classroom and our university should always be spaces of mutual respect, kindness, and support, without fear of discrimination, harassment, or violence. Should you ever need assistance or have concerns about incidents that violate this principle, please come talk to me or access the resources available to you on campus, especially the LoboRESPECT Advocacy Center and the support services listed on its website (http://loborespect.unm.edu/). 

Also, I strongly suggest you come talk to me if you are having difficulty in the course, if you have questions on material presented in lecture or the text, or if you get interested in some topic and want to know more. I always like to talk about paleoecology.

Reading: Read the papers and the text; they are essential for understanding background and key concepts discussed in the course; you will be tested on this content regardless of whether I explicitly discuss it in lecture.

Lab Assignments: Over the course of the semester there will be ~4-6 assignments of varying point value. These may involve original research (e.g., data compilation, interpretation and/or analysis of patterns). Please note that this course is intended for upper-level undergraduates. Thus, I expect that you can think and write coherently. Spell check before turning in assignments. 

Exams: The exams will consist mostly of short-answer/mini-essay questions, including interpretation and explanation of graphs. You should always come prepared with a calculator just in case; you will not be allowed to share with other students during an exam.

Discussion/Participation: Each student will be part of a team responsible for leading a discussion of the readings assigned for one of the themes. As part of this task you will write a short synopsis of the paper to be posted on the class blog (http://paleoecology.blogspot.com) by Monday at 5pm. Each student in the class is required to post at least one question or comment on each paper synopsis. Your discussion/participation credit is based on the quality and consistency of these blog comments.

Grading: Grading will be based on a total of 500 possible points.  This breaks down to:

Midterm Exams (2@100 points/each)                     200 points

Final Exam                                                              150 points

Assignments                                                           100 points

Discussion/Participation                                           50 points

TOTAL                                                                             500 points

Grades are based on straight percentages, with 90%> = A, 80-90%= B, 70-80% = C, etc.