Prerequisite(s): GEOS 3534 and STAT 3573 or the approval of the instructor.
This course applies quantitative statistical methods to the study of evolutionary biology in the fossil record. The acquisition, processing, and analysis of paleontological data will be stressed throughout, demonstrating the types of problems that can be addressed with information from fossils. Topics include the quantitative study of shape (geometric morphometrics), phylogenetic analysis, diversity analysis, survivorship curves, biogeographic models, time-series analysis, and biostratigraphy (graphic correlation). Laboratory work will use the “PAST” statistical package.