EES636: The quarternary period-environments, animals adaptations during the last 2.5 million years

[Cr:4, Lc:3, Tt:0, Lb:0]

Pleistocene and Holocene; geological and environmental change; major climatic oscillations (e.g. Milankovitch cycles; glacial interglacials; monsoons)
Vertebrate speciation events including the genus Homo; subsequent dispersals and adaptations
Environmental reconstructions using proxy data (e.g. pollen records, deep sea core records, fossil records, stable isotope (carbon, oxygen, nitrogen)
Multidisciplinary case studies (e.g. aridity, sea level changes, floods)
Ecological roles in the rise and decline of complex societies (e.g. Harappans, Mayans, Mesopotamians); advent of agriculture and domestication
Methods in Quaternary studies (e.g. stratigraphy, geomorphology, geochronology, paleontology, palaeobotany)
Major debates in Quaternary studies (e.g. faunal overkill; Toba super-eruption)
Additional course activities
Geological fieldtrips to show examples of Quaternary change and associated proxy records