ANTH 6375 - Paleozoology and Paleoenvironments

The reconstruction of paleoenvironments (e.g., ancient climates, biomes, habitats, floras and the like) is essential for understanding the nature of Earth’s climatic changes and how those changes influenced terrestrial ecosystems, including those inhabited by past human populations. This course provides a detailed treatment of paleoenvironmental reconstruction based on the analysis of fossil animal remains recovered from archaeological and paleontological sites. In addition to covering the ecological fundamentals and analytical assumptions attending such analyses, it covers the diverse array of analytical techniques that have been applied to fossil remains for the purpose of paleoenvironmental reconstruction. Emphasis is placed on Quaternary mammals, though the techniques covered here can be applied to virtually any time period and any taxonomic group.