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12.517 G(2) 2-0-4 Spring 2005
The theme for Spring 2005 will be
Biological and Environmental Coevolution Preceding the Cambrian Explosion.
This seminar will focus on dynamical change in biogeochemical cycles accompanying early animal evolution---beginning with the time of the earliest known microscopic animal fossils (~600 Ma) and culminating (~100 Myr later) with the rapid diversification of marine animals known as the ``Cambrian explosion.'' Recent work indicates that this period of intense biological evolution was both a cause and an effect of changes in global biogeochemical cycles. We will seek to identify and quantify such coevolutionary changes. Lectures and discussions will attempt to unite the perspectives of quantitative theory, organic geochemistry, and evolutionary biology.
We will meet Wednesdays from 1:00-3:00pm, in Rm 56-167.
Principal Instructor: Daniel Rothman.
Co-Instructors: Roger Summons (MIT) and Andy Knoll (Harvard).
Guest lecturers: Kevin Peterson (Dartmouth), John Hayes (WHOI), Paul Hoffman (Harvard), and Sam Bowring (MIT).
Tentative syllabus:
- 1. Geochemical signals of the Proterozoic-Phanerozoic transition
-
Feb. 9 (Rothman): Reactive flows of bulk carbon and the "Proterozoic soup."
(Logan et al., 1995;
Hayes et al., 1999;
Rothman et al., 2003).
Feb 16 (Rothman): Molecular biomarkers and "geoecology"
(Fenchel, 1988).
- 2. The molecular fossil record
Feb 23 (Summons):
Summons and Walter, 1990;
Brocks and Summons, 2003;
Volkman, 2005.
- 3. Early animal evolution
-
March 2 (Knoll):
Porter, 2004.
- 4. Molecular clocks and the divergence of metazoans
March 9 (Peterson):
Knoll, 1994;
Peterson et al., 2004.
- 5. Oxygenation
March 16 (Hayes):
Runnegar, 1991;
Betts and Holland, 1991;
Colman and Holland, 2000.
- 6. Glaciations
March 30 (Hoffman):
Hoffman and Schrag, 2002.
- 7. Chronology
April 6 (Bowring):
Bowring and Schmitz, 2003;
Condon et al., 2005.
- 8. Student presentations
April 13 (David Fike):
Canfield, 2004.
April 13 (Shankar Mukherji):
Mattick, 2004;
Bartel, 2004.
April 20 (Amy Kelly):
Valentine and Moores, 1970;
Des Marais et al., 1992;
Brasier and Lindsay, 2001.
April 20 (Alex Bradley):
Cook and Shergold, 1984;
Shen et al., 2000.
April 27 (Alison Cohen)
Knoll et al., 1995;
Iyer et al., 1995.
April 27 (Phoebe Cohen)
Vidal and Moczydlowska-Vidal, 1997;
Grey et al., 2003.
May 4 (Vid Thayalan)
Szostak et al, 2001;
Hanczyc et al., 2003.
May 4 (Jake Waldbauer)
Baldauf, 2003;
King, 2004.
May 11 (Ariane Verdy)
Stanley, 1973;
Thingstad et al., 1996.
May 11 (Marion Dumas)
Canfield, 1994;
Nealson, 1997.