Introduction to Paleontology from scratch

Explore palaeontology as the science of fossils and traces from life in the past, from dinosaurs to ancient plants, and learn how petrified remains reveal the geological and biological past.

Explore paleontology—from dinosaurs to ancient plants and jellyfishes—by studying fossils, locating fossil-rich sites with modern tech, and excavating and preserving finds.

Explore the great dying at the Permian–Triassic boundary, a mass extinction driven by massive Siberian Traps volcanism, CO2-driven warming, ocean acidification, and oxygen loss.

Explore how Pangea formed from Laurentia, Baltica, Gondwana and other landmasses, and how plate tectonics gradually split it into Laurasia, Gondwana, and the modern continents.

Gondwana united with Laurasia and landmasses to form Pangea, then broke up into continents such as South America, Africa, Australia, India and Antarctica, between 550 and 180 million years ago.

Trace the breakup of Pangea into Laurasia and Gondwana, noting Laurasia as a northern supercontinent from about 225 to 71 million years ago, and the emergence of Europe, Asia.

Explore the Tethys ocean as the endless sea spanning 250 to 66 million years, linking Pangea's breakup with Laurasia and Gondwana through rocks and traces.

Explore the Triassic period, roughly 250 to 200 million years ago, when reptiles diversified and the first dinosaurs emerged on hot, dry Pangea.

During the Jurassic period, dinosaurs dominated as sauropods, ankylosaurs, and stegosaurs diversified while early mammals emerged, and Pangea split into Laurasia and Gondwana.

Explore the Cretaceous period, the last age of dinosaurs—from about 145 to 66 million years ago—highlighting Pangea breakup, diverse dinosaurs, pterosaurs, marine reptiles, and the Cretaceous–Paleogene extinction event.

Define dinosaurs as prehistoric reptiles from the mesozoic, distinct from plesiosaurs and pterosaurs, and note their diverse forms, fossil history, and end-cretaceous extinction.

Discover how dinosaurs are classified into two orders—bird-hipped and lizard-hipped—and trace key groups like ankylosauria, stegosauria, ornithopods, marginocephalians, coelurosaurs, Tyrannosaurus, and sauropodomorpha.

examine a velociraptor tooth to distinguish it from other dinosaurs using size ranges, conical serrated teeth with denticles, and jaw tooth counts, noting its Asia origin and late Cretaceous context.

Analyze Spinosaurus teeth to identify Spinosauroidea traits, including long slender conical teeth with grooves and front-to-back size variation. Link these features to an aquatic, fish-eating lifestyle in Cretaceous North Africa.

Trace the evolution of land plants from freshwater green algae through Ordovician to Permian periods, highlighting non-vascular origins, vascular systems, first forests, and vast coal deposits in the Carboniferous.

Discover the classification of ancient plants, dividing them into division one bryophytes and division two vascular plants. Learn about mosses, liverworts, hornworts, ferns, gymnosperms, and angiosperms with monocots and dicots.

Find ancient plant fossils across sedimentary rocks, plant material deposits, peat bogs, petrified forests, glacier retreats, and cliffs, noting preservation, environments, and the need for authorization and declaration.

Explore how jellyfish fossils form through rapid burial, sediment compaction, mineral replacement, and permineralization. Discover rare soft tissue fossils, carbonized fossils, and impressions across Cambrian to Jurassic times.

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