New class! GEOL 499 – Spring 2025

GEOL 499: Phylogenetic Systematics & Dinosaur Evolution
Spring 2025
Instructor: Dr. Nathan Smith, Curator, Natural History Museum of LA County
Units: 4
Lecture: T/Th (11:00am–12:20pm)
Lab: (Th 9:00am–10:50am)

Course Description: GEOL 499 Special Topics: Phylogenetic Systematics & Dinosaur Evolution is a four
credit course that utilizes dinosaurs as a study system for understanding evolution and phylogenetic
systematics. Evolutionary trees (“phylogenies”) provide the framework to both organize biodiversity and test diverse hypotheses in biology, paleontology, and earth history. This class covers the basics of evolutionary thought, including an overview and history of taxonomy, systematics, and phylogenetics; modern methods for generating phylogenetic trees; and comparative phylogenetic methods and applications of phylogenies (e.g., analyses of: ancestral character evolution, coevolution, conservation, biogeography, diversification rates). This course will also present a survey of the Dinosauria, including their taxonomy, evolution, and biogeography. Emphasis will be placed on dinosaur relationships, and how dinosaur evolution has been influenced by major events in earth history (mass extinctions, plate tectonics, climate change, etc.).

This spring (2025) semester Dr. Nate Smith, curator at the Natural History Museum and adjunct professor in our department, will teach a GEOL 499 on Phylogenetic Systematics and Dinosaur Evolution.

If you have an interest in evolution, paleo and dinosaurs you will find this class to be very informative! Please contact David Bottjer or Nate Smith if you have any questions.