Extinctions: crises in the history of life

Course programme

Friday 8 July 2016

Please plan to arrive between 16:30 and 18:30. You can meet other course members in the bar which opens at 18:15. Tea and coffee making facilities are available in the study bedrooms.

19:00 Dinner
20:30 Early ideas on extinction. The principles of palaeontology and very ancient crises in the history of life.
22:00 Terrace bar open for informal discussion

Saturday 9 July 2016

07:30 Breakfast
09:00 Short talk followed by field excursion. We may first visit the Sedgwick Museum (this is to be confirmed nearer to the course date) in Cambridge before going to at least one gravel pit or quarry. Please bring stout footwear (essential; preferably walking boots, or wellington boots), waterproof clothing in case of bad weather, and, if you wish, a thermos flask which can be filled at breakfast. A packed lunch will be provided.
18:30 Dinner
20:00 Life and death in the Palaeozoic and Mesozoic Eras. Mass extinction by meteorite impact 65 million years ago?
21:30 Terrace bar open for informal discussion

Sunday 10 July 2016

07:30 Breakfast
09:00 Practical session - yesterday’s finds and other fossils. Brief review of extinctions covered so far
10:30 Coffee
11:00 Extinctions in the Cenozoic Era. Human induced extinctions, and the future? Discussion and summing up
12:30 Free
12:45 Lunch

The course will disperse after lunch.

Further study

Choose from a range of part-time University of Cambridge qualifications at undergraduate and postgraduate level. Courses starting in October 2016 in a related area:

Undergraduate Diploma in Evolutionary Biology