Vertebrate Paleontology

Explore the fascinating world of vertebrate paleontology in this comprehensive 18-hour course from Utah State University. Delve into the origins and evolution of vertebrates, from early chordates to modern mammals. Learn about key anatomical features, fossil formation, and geological time scales. Examine the development of jaws, bones, and complex body plans across various vertebrate groups. Investigate major evolutionary transitions, including the conquest of land and the origin of flight. Study diverse prehistoric creatures like dinosaurs, pterosaurs, and early mammals. Analyze cladograms, functional morphology, and important fossil discoveries. Discover how major extinction events shaped vertebrate diversity. Gain insights into human evolution and the emergence of bipedalism. Through 89 detailed lectures, develop a deep understanding of vertebrate paleontology and the incredible story of life on Earth.

Lecture 0 Introduction to Vertebrate Paleontology.
Lecture 1 How to Grow a Vertebrate?.
Lecture 2 Amphioxus, the Quintessential Chordate.
Lecture 3 Our Ancestry with Sea Squirts.
Lecture 4 How to Grow a Brain and Backbone. Neural Crest Cells.
Lecture 5 Three Hypotheses on the Origin of Chordates.
Lecture 6 Owen's Body Plan and the Fossils of Chengjiang.
Lecture 7 How fossils are made?.
Lecture 8 Where to Look for Fossil Vertebrates?.
Lecture 9 Fossils and the Geological Time-Scale.
Lecture 10 Why do Vertebrates Look that Way? Functional Morphology.
Lecture 11 What is a Cladogram?.
Lecture 13 Early Fish and the Origin of Bone, Scales and Teeth.
Lecture 14 When Fish Lacked Jaws.
Lecture 15 Living Fish Without Jaws: Hagfish and Lampreys.
Lecture 16 Origin of Jaws in Fish.
Lecture 17 Fossil Armored Fish and Other Primitive Jawed Fish.
Lecture 18 Origin of Bony Fish, Early Actinopterygians.
Lecture 19 The Evolution of Fish Jaws and Fish Tails.
Lecture 20 The Difference between Lung Fish and Coelacanths.
Lecture 21 How Vertebrates Conquered the Land.
Lecture 22 The First Tetrapods.
Lecture 23 Early Amphibians of the Paleozoic.
Lecture 24 Its all in the Backbone, Vertebra in Early Tetrapods.
Lecture 25 Jaw Muscles in Early Tetrapods and Amphibians.
Lecture 26 The Origin of Frogs and Salamanders.
Lecture 27 The Reptile Skull.
Lecture 28 The Reptile Skeleton.
Lecture 29 The Origin of the Extraordinary Egg.
Lecture 30 Holes in the Skull: Temporal Fenestrae Patterns.
Lecture 31 Who are the Early Anapsid Reptiles?.
Lecture 32 Who are the Early Diapsid Reptiles?.
Lecture 33 Who are the Early Synapsid Reptiles?.
Lecture 33a A Closer Look at Dicynodonts.
Lecture 35 Key Traits of Archosauromorpha: A new group of Diapsid Reptiles.
Lecture 36 Breathing in Archosauromorphs.
Lecture 37 Triassic Archosauromorphs.
Lecture 38 Ankle Bones: Crurotarsi vs. Avemetatarsalia.
Lecture 39 Curotarsians of the Triassic and Beyond.
Lecture 40 Triassic Marine Reptiles.
Lecture 41 How Triassic Reptiles Became Fast.
Lecture 42 Where did the Dinosaurs come from?.
Lecture 43 Prehistoric Sharks.
Lecture 44 How Sharks Conquered the Oceans.
Lecture 45 The Radiation of Ray-Fin Fish and the Skulls of Mimipiscis and Amia.
Lecture 46 Fossil Fish Scales.
Lecture 47 The Great Feeding Innovation in Fish.
Lecture 48 The Modern Fish: Neopterygii and the Arrival of the Teleostei.
Lecture 48a The Fossil Record of Trout.
Lecture 49 Saurischian vs. Ornithischian Dinosaurs.
Lecture 49a- A New Dinosaur Tree?.
Lecture 50 Overview of Saurischian Dinosaurs.
Lecture 50a How Tyrannosaurus rex became king of the dinosaurs.
Lecture 50b Zophia’s Monster: Deinocheirus.
Lecture 51 Overview of Ornithischian Dinosaurs.
Lecture 51a The Story of Stegosaurus.
Lecture 52 Thermoregulation in Dinosaurs.
Lecture 53 Feathered Dinosaurs.
Lecture 54 Pterosaurs Prehistoric Dragons.
Lecture 54a Anahanguera Brazil's Pterosaurs.
Lecture 55 The Origin of Turtles.
Lecture 55a A new fossil in the origin of turtle debate.
Lecture 56 The Turtles: Pleurodires vs. Cryptodires.
Lecture 57 The Fossil Record of Lizards.
Lecture 58 The Origin of Snakes.
Lecture 59 Mosasaurs, Plesiosaurs and Ichthyosaurs.
Lecture 60 The Skeleton of Archaeopteryx.
Lecture 61 The Origin of Flight in Birds.
Lecture 62 Mesozoic Birds.
Lecture 63 How did Birds Survive the K-T Extinction?.
Lecture 64 The Fossil Record of Cenozoic Birds.
Lecture 64a Fossil Turkeys!.
Lecture 65 Cynodonts: Between Reptile and Mammal.
Lecture 65a Baby Kayentatherium.
Lecture 66 Evolution of the Mammal Ear.
Lecture 67 The Origin of Chewing in Mammals.
Lecture 68 Morganucodon: The First True Mammal?.
Lecture 69 The Fossil Record of Multituberculates and Monotremes.
Lecture 70 The Tribosphenic Molar.
Lecture 71 Why are there so many Marsupials in Australia?.
Lecture 71a Have you ever heard of Taeniodonts?.
Lecture 72 What is an Afrothere?.
Lecture 73 Mastodons and Mammoths.
Lecture 74 The Mystery of Bat Origins.
Lecture 75 The Evolution of Shrews and Moles.
Lecture 76 The Evolution of Rodent Jaws.
Lecture 76a The Fossil Record of Hamsters.
Lecture 77 How to Distinguish the astragulus bone of perissodactyls and artiodactyls..
Lecture 77a Hyopsodus: Why Common Fossils are Important.
Lecture 78 Fossils and the Origin of Whales and Dolphins.
Lecture 78a - What is Andrewsarchus?.
Lecture 79 Extinct and Living Perissodactyla.
Lecture 80 Meat Eating Mammals: Creodonts and Carnivores.
Lecture 80a Hyainailouroidea Creodonts: a post-Eocene group.
Lecture 80b: Fossil Record of Dogs, Foxes and Wolves.
Lecture 81 Who Killed the Mega Mammals?.
Lecture 81a What Killed the Mega Mammals? Update!.
Lecture 82 The First Primates.
Lecture 83 Primate Noses: Fossil Strepsirrihini and Haplorhini.
Lecture 84 Why are there so Many Lemurs in Madagascar?.
Lecture 85 The First Monkeys.
Lecture 85a Rooneyia: An enigmatic fossil primate from Texas..
Lecture 86 Fossil Apes.
Lecture 87 Ardipithecus and the Origin of Bipedial Walking in Humans.
Lecture 88 Australopithecus, Paranthropus and Homo.
Lecture 89 When did Early Humans Leave Africa?.
The Story of Triceratops.
The Mysterious Extinction of Multituberculates.