1. 1.1 Introduction
   1. Fossil
      1. any evidence of ancient life
         1. usually inside sedimentary rock
         2. tar
         3. resin
         4. ice
      2. generally over 10,000 years
   2. Earth
      1. life for 4bn years
      2. dynamic
         1. changing environments context for life
      3. probably massive events affected evolution
   3. Fossil Fuels
      1. fossils used for matching rock ages
      2. the past is the key to the future
      3. past used to interpret climate change
   4. Strata
      1. sedimentary layers
      2. diaries of earth history
         1. layers = pages
         2. pages missing
         3. detective work
            1. multidisciplinary
            2. complex interactions
            3. atoms
            4. cells
            5. tissues
            6. organs
            7. individuals
            8. populations
            9. species
            10. biosphere
   5. Uncertainty
      1. difficult to reconstruct ancient life
      2. hard to do experiments
      3. all theories up for re-interpretation
2. 1.2 Getting into the fossil record
   1. Different forms
      1. body
         1. bodily remains
            1. skeletons
            2. shells
            3. leaves
         2. can travel a long way from original source
      2. trace
         1. footprints
            1. evidence of activity
            2. only evidence of some creatures without hard parts
         2. tend to stay in-situ
      3. chemical
         1. rare
   2. Preservation potential
      1. not all organisms on fossil record
      2. factors
         1. durable body parts
            1. morphology
         2. habitat
         3. buried in sedimentt
            1. sediment becomes part of rock record
      3. species preservation
         1. number of individuals
            1. forams
            2. highly abundant
            3. lots of fossils
            4. big marine lizards
            5. less common
            6. less fossils
         2. distribution
      4. perfect preservation
         1. butterfly
         2. protection from
            1. biological
            2. scavengers
            3. physical
            4. wind/water currents
            5. chemical
            6. oxygen
         3. sediment
            1. finegrained
            2. closer fit
      5. most fossils microscopic
      6. most organisms organically recyled
         1. partial prevention
            1. fossil
         2. different materials
            1. different resistances
         3. animal cells
            1. no cellulose
            2. need to be sealed
      7. Processes
         1. fire
            1. turn plants to charcoal
            2. uneaten
   3. Petrification
      1. permineralized
         1. sediment entering tiny pores
            1. bone
            2. shell
            3. wood
      2. replacementt
         1. growth of new minerals at cost of organic
            1. common for soft tissue
            2. calcium phosphate
   4. moulds
      1. original shell
         1. surrounded by sediment
            1. original shell decays
            2. replaced by another materail
            3. cast
   5. pseudofossils
      1. misleading structures
         1. crystals
   6. destructive processes
      1. erosiion
      2. buried
      3. squeezed and heated
         1. rearranged to more stable
            1. metamorphism
   7. preservation technique
      1. determines biological information
3. 1.3 Classification and naming of fossils
   1. taxonomic hierarchy
      1. Kingdoms
         1. animals
            1. can look for food
         2. plants
            1. photosynthesis
         3. fungi
      2. phylum
         1. bodyplan
      3. order
      4. genus
      5. species
         1. natural basic unit of classsification
   2. reflection of evolutionary relationships
   3. use heirarchy to identify specimen
   4. binominal
      1. genus and species
      2. species without genus has no meaning
   5. type specimen kept for reference
   6. species members can interbreed to produce fertile offspring
      1. reproductive isolation
         1. no fertile offspring
      2. can't deduce for fossils
         1. have to guess
         2. fossil species based on morphology
   7. fossils can be fragmented
      1. hard to classify
      2. plant fossils generally isolated fragments
         1. fragments named
         2. separate names sometimes kept
   8. different plants parts
      1. differing taxonomic use
         1. leaves can vary according to position
         2. flowers generally constant
            1. attract recurring visitors
            2. good for classification
            3. relatively rare
   9. cladistics
      1. technique for assessing shared characteristics
      2. cladogram
         1. diagram showing closeness of species
   10. DNA
       1. molecular phylogeny
       2. measure similarity
       3. x-check with morphological classification
4. 1.4 Interpreting fossils as living organisms
   1. Knowledge of modern organisms
      1. use to interpret fossils
      2. hard-parts related to soft parts
   2. marine invertebrates
      1. majority of fossil record
      2. molluscs
         1. body secretes shell
         2. bivalves
            1. cockles
            2. mussels
            3. 2 part shell
            4. generally symmetrical
            5. growth lines
            6. muscle scars
            7. tubular syphons
            8. in
            9. out
            10. shape indicates mode of life
            11. eg long syphons
            12. deep burrower
            13. deeper notch
            14. longer syphons
            15. cockles
            16. shallow burrower
            17. no notch
         3. gastropods
            1. snails
            2. slugs
         4. cephalopods
            1. octopus
      3. Echinoderms
         1. echinoids
            1. sea urchins
            2. interlocking plates
            3. movable spines
            4. attached by muscles to knobs on plates
            5. tube feet
            6. multipurpose
            7. feeding
            8. respiration
            9. locomotion
            10. constructing burrows
            11. project through plates
            12. unlikely to be seen in fossil record
            13. round urchins
            14. browse on plant growths
            15. oval
            16. burrow
            17. smaller spines
            18. mouth underneath
            19. starfish
            20. echinoids
5. 1.5 Geological time and the dating of fossils
   1. Earth history divided into periods
      1. based on changes in fossil record
         1. mass extinctions
         2. mountain-building episodes
         3. gaps in sedimentary record
   2. age
      1. relative age
         1. used before rock dating possible
            1. early stages of geology
      2. absolute age
         1. radiometric dating
            1. measure decay of isotopes
      3. stratigraphy
         1. layers
            1. geological succession
   3. correlation
      1. understanding what happened at same time in different places
         1. mass extinctions
      2. biostratigraphy
         1. dissimilar strata correlated
            1. similar fossils
         2. stratigraphic column
            1. zones
      3. most useful
         1. rapidly evolving
         2. distinctive appearancee
         3. wide ranging
            1. marine
         4. abundant
6. 1.6 Reconstructing the Past
   1. use of current processes to understand past
   2. rare catastrophes can have greater impact than gradual processes
   3. difficult to accurately reconstruct extinct organisms
      1. have to make a lot of inferences about behaviour from little evidence
   4. all pictures reconstructions
      1. based on assumptions