Dino 101: Dinosaur Paleobiology

University of Alberta via Coursera

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Details

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Provider

Coursera
Pricing

Free Online Course (Audit)
Languages

English
Certificate

Paid Certificate Available
Duration & workload

15 hours
Sessions

On-Demand
Level

Beginner
Subtitles

Arabic, French, Portuguese, Italian, German, Russian, English, Spanish, Kazakh, Hindi, Swedish, Korean, Greek, Chinese, Thai, Ukrainian, Japanese, Indonesian, Polish, Dutch, Turkish

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Overview

Class Central Tips

Dino 101: Dinosaur Paleobiology is a 12-lesson course teaching a comprehensive overview of non-avian dinosaurs. Topics covered: anatomy, eating, locomotion, growth, environmental and behavioral adaptations, origins and extinction. Lessons are delivered from museums, fossil-preparation labs and dig sites. Estimated workload: 3-5 hrs/week.

Syllabus

Appearance and Anatomy

This lesson covers the diversity in dinosaur appearances, and will be able to identify major features of the major groups of dinosaurs.

Death and Fossilization

This module describes how fossils form, how we interpret the taphonomy of skeletons and bonebeds, and looks at the possible biases taphonomic events may create in the fossil record.

Eating

This module looks at the variety of food types, feeding habits, and feeding adaptations amongst the major groups of dinosaurs.

Moving Around

This module helps students understand the general modes and styles of locomotion in the major dinosaur groups. It also describes general methods of evaluating hypotheses on locomotion.

Birth, Growth and Reproduction

This module provides a generalized life history of a dinosaur, from birth through adulthood, including reproduction. The student will be able to describe major techniques of evaluating growth stages and rates in dinosaurs.

Attack and Defense

Examines the behaviours and structures that may have served for attack or defence through the lifetime of a dinosaur.

What is a Species?

This module will teach the different ways of defining what a species is. Students will be able to compare the strengths and weaknesses of different species concepts for different situations.

Evolution

This module will describe the basic theories of speciation, and discusses how how these different methods of speciation may have occurred, including both hypothetical and empirical examples.

Stratigraphy and Geologic Time

This method provides basic stratigraphic concepts and the scale of earth history. Students will understand the evolution of dinosaurs through time, including which groups evolved when and where.

Paleogeography and Plate Tectonics

This module presents the basic concepts in plate tectonics and the evolution of the earth’s surface.

Dinosaur Origins

This module will look at the evolution of dinosaurs from non-dinosaurian archosaurs.

Dinosaur Extinction

The module will examine the end-Cretaceous extinction event, and provide examples of vertebrate groups that both persisted and died out during the event.

Taught by

Philip Currie and Betsy Kruk

Reviews

4.9 rating, based on 150 Class Central reviews

4.9 rating at Coursera based on 3361 ratings

Start your review of Dino 101: Dinosaur Paleobiology

Kinkin(li) @kiliti

Magic,maybe I need a dinosaur to turn a human,it is essential to study this animal and how to success to make this animal be myself image. After reading this content of this course,my comprehesion of english letters is hugely improving and have a l…

Magic,maybe I need a dinosaur to turn a human,it is essential to study this animal and how to success to make this animal be myself image.

After reading this content of this course,my comprehesion of english letters is hugely improving and have a lovely on this course,especially knowing that the clearly appearance and anatomy about a kind of a dinosaur,if can I change the dinosaur's appearance turn to a human or make it useful for me to live in a place better,if can I change its anatomy turn to another samples,for example,the anatomy of the avatar who is a role of the film.The anatomy of the dinosaur may be used as a role of other films,on my own imagination, the anatomy of the dinosaur may be healthier by my study on how to lengthen the span of life,and so on.
JUNAYED AHMED SUNNY @solomadcoder

The is an awesome course. I teach a lot of Dinosaurs. Also I learn some few basics of biological science. The instructor and the media visualisation is very authentic and clear to understand. Thanks for such a great course.
Sonal P Patel @sonal

This class is about dinosaurs and Paleobiology! I enjoyed taking this class, along with the class central cohort. This class introduces an exciting field of research taught by the world expert paleontologist -- Prof. Phillip Currey and his resea…

This class is about dinosaurs and Paleobiology! I enjoyed taking this class, along with the class central cohort.

This class introduces an exciting field of research taught by the world expert paleontologist -- Prof. Phillip Currey and his research associates, from the University of Alberta. I never thought I would learn about dinosaurs from world experts, along with enthusiastic learners from around the world, and also get the opportunity to join an active cohort of like-minded learners from around the world organized by Class Central.

This class is suitable for cohort settings as well to learn by yourself to satisfy your curiosity about dinosaurs, how they lived, and also what the field of paleontology is like! There are many topics covered in this class and some of those are even related to our current times. So, this is a class for many types of learners. There is something interesting for everyone in this class!

This class was my first introduction to paleontology and I recommend this class to anyone interested in learning about this field of science, the history of dinosaurs, and having fun learning about a variety of dinosaurs, in general, that existed on earth!

A great class for lifelong learners on MOOCs!
Samantha Thompson @samisomsam

This class was a great overview of dinosaurs with engaging videos. I liked how the readings went along with the videos so it works for different styles of learning.
Donato Rossella @Jaqq

The course material is interesting for amateurs who wants to have a better understanding of dinosaurs and the videos are well done and interesting.

However, at times I found the course notes to be written poorly (with repetitive, over-simplified language and some mistakes here and there) and the forums looks somewhat empty to me.

I definitely recommend the course, because the material available is enough to understand the concept and gain a basic culture about that period.
Jeffrey Chiou

Great course! The lectures are very enjoyable to watch, much like watching nature documentaries. Overall the difficulty is extremely easy and requires minimal committment, which isn't necessarily a bad thing, especially if you are a busy person. In addition, all the lectures are made available at the beginning of the course, so you can watch multiple week's worth of lectures at once if you want.

To get the most out of the course, I recommend reading the included class notes, which go into greater detail than the lectures and contain some wonderful diagrams and pictures.

The only (very minor) criticism I have is that difficulty of the in-lecture quizzes varies greatly and depends on prior knowledge.
Anonymous

As a graduate in geological sciences with a Masters attained in 1976, I found the course as a great updating of this aspect of geology. When I took Paleontology 210 at the University of Saskatchewan in 1975 it was mainly on invertebrates. So, this…

As a graduate in geological sciences with a Masters attained in 1976, I found the course as a great updating of this aspect of geology. When I took Paleontology 210 at the University of Saskatchewan in 1975 it was mainly on invertebrates. So, this was an enlightening experience. I found the course dealt too much with biology and evolution. As a petroleum geologist, I found some of the theories difficult to envisage. But they did a great job presenting and explaining some of the new updated concepts in paleontology. As when I mentored for over thirty years in the field of geology, I would always tell the young geologists that when you think that you know something or theorize on a concept, old mother nature will turn and humble you with its own unique expertise. In this regard, they did explain that we do not know everything!!
Anonymous

What a great class! I loved it. It has a classic read first/lectures second format with the lectures complimenting not just reiterating the text. I especially liked the imbedded quizzes in the videos, although several have formatting problems (ex…

What a great class! I loved it. It has a classic read first/lectures second format with the lectures complimenting not just reiterating the text. I especially liked the imbedded quizzes in the videos, although several have formatting problems (ex. "there may be more than one choice" and then only one choice is available to click).
A few other comments/suggestions:
*Some of the species discussions and endless dino names (especially lesson 11) were a bit overwhelming to this novice, but in the end they were not tested.
*The fossil viewer was a cool addition, but I didn't always see the relevance to what was being discussed.
*There were a fair number of negative questions in the assessments; I misread many of them (I suppose, though, that was on me).
@astígona @astigona

I was looking for a brief still deep introduction to the paleontologists field of study, and that's exactly what I found on this course! Thanks to the whole Alberta's amazing team!
Russell Blackford

I loved this course! The coverage of dinosaur topics and issues was comprehensive (while naturally leaving room to fill in more detail), and I learned much about the science of paleontology more generally. The instructors were enthusiastic and engaging, and they kept the course interesting with exhibits, little questions to provoke thought, etc. All in all, I thoroughly enjoyed the experience of studying Dino 101, and I hope to find time at some point to take more of the University of Alberta's paleontology courses.
Pat Bowden @pat

Well made and interesting course with links to various sites including a geological timeline and fossil viewer.
Anonymous

Our son (9) is extremely interested in dinosaurs and science in general and has read many books etc. aimed at his age group. He was able to complete this course and really enjoyed it. The videos and materials are very high quality and it presents a lot of scientific material and understanding that could be applied more generally. It gave him a great sense of achievement and something productive to do during the summer vacation.
Stephen D Swaney

Great intro to dinosaur biology. Engaging lectures and some good discussion in the forums. Plus there are some 3D scans of dino fossils you can play with in your browser.

As one of the other reviewers implied, it is not a rigorous course, although they do go into some detail about dino anatomy. I thought it was perfect for a 100 level course. If UAlberta ever gives a follow-on, I am there!
John Smith

I personally found this course to be far too basic. It is a very superficial introduction to and overview of dinosaurs that will not be very interesting to anyone with more than a passing interest in them. Having said that, the course was quite well done and would be perfect for someone who is just beginning to learn about dinosaurs.
Anonymous

A superb look into the science behind palaeontology. I learned so much about the biology, geology, and more around my favourite creatures. Thoroughly recommended for any dinosaur enthusiast.
Anonymous

I was initially nervous about taking this course given that I don't come from a scientific background but I was pleased to discover that I struggled much less than I thought I would. It is a wonderful overview and introduction to paleobiology and inspired me to look for more courses in the same arena.
Anonymous

Enjoyed the course. Interesting information well presented. Would love to go on a dig with the instructors and learn hands-on with them.
Anonymous

Engaging and fun way to introduce yourself to the world of dinosaurs and Earth sciences. Highly recommend!
Anonymous

One of the best courses I have taken on Coursera. Very complete, fun and interactive lessons. I love the resources like the 3D fossil visualizer. Betsy is a great teacher, I will definitely take the rest of the University of Alberta paleobiology courses. Highly recommended. Thank you for your work!

Uno de los mejores cursos que he realizado en Coursera. Lecciones muy completas, divertidas e interactivas. Me encantan los recursos como el visualizador 3D de fósiles. Betsy es una profesora genial, sin duda tomaré el resto de cursos de paleobiología de la Universidad de Alberta. Muy recomendado. Gracias por vuestro trabajo!
Anonymous

This is an ideal way to learn about dinosaurs - a compact but concentrated course that teaches you all the concepts you need to know to have a basic but thorough understanding about dinosaurs and the context in which they rose, thrived, and finally…

This is an ideal way to learn about dinosaurs - a compact but concentrated course that teaches you all the concepts you need to know to have a basic but thorough understanding about dinosaurs and the context in which they rose, thrived, and finally died out.

The course is made easy through clear presentation and succinct content, and I would highly recommend it to anyone interested in the natural history of our planet, not only dinosaur aficionados.

For those who watch and read anything they can about dinosaurs, this course will help you organise and better understand what you already know and add new concepts and facts to boot. The fact that this course was put together by such a giant in the field, as Phil Currie definitely is, only adds to the guarantee that you will receive a fun and fact full ride which is bound to inspire you to learn even more about this fascinating topic.

Highly recommended and utterly approved.