Associate Professor Stephen Chester with students enrolled in his paleontological field school in Montana.
Western North America
ANTH 3016 — Fieldwork in Biological Anthropology: Dinosaur Extinction and the Rise of Mammals
(3 credits)
The Cretaceous-Paleogene boundary marks a mass extinction event that is best known for the elimination of the non-avian dinosaurs 66 million years ago. Come out to North Dakota and Montana to discover why this event was also incredibly significant for our earliest primate ancestors and other mammals. A team of undergraduate students will be trained in excavation and screen-washing techniques and will collect fossils with paleontologists to better understand how mammals responded directly after the demise of the dinosaurs. Students will have numerous opportunities to prospect for fossil vertebrates including extinct mammals, dinosaurs, turtles, fish, crocodilians, and even fossil plants, which will ultimately paint a picture of the environment of our earliest primate relatives in North America. This course provides students with paleontological field experience and will teach students about our own evolutionary history—the first clear step in the divergence of humans from other mammals.
