Fandom High School

It was still just Cutter standing in front of the class when he began this week’s class, even though he was extremely excited about this week’s class topic, “Good morning,” he began, “this week we’re going to be looking at trilobites,” he said excitedly, “Trilobites form one of the earliest known groups of arthropods. The first appearance of trilobites in the fossil record defines the base of the Atdabanian stage of the Early Cambrian period, roughly 521 million years ago and they flourished throughout the lower Paleozoic before they began to decline and became extinct in the devonian period. The only surviving Trilobite at this time was the Preotida and then that became extinct during the mass extinction event of the Permian Period,” he explained.

“ Trilobites were among the most successful of all early animals, existing in oceans for almost 270 million years, with over 22,000 species having been described. By the time trilobites first appeared in the fossil record, they were already highly diversified and geographically dispersed. Because trilobites had wide diversity and an easily fossilized mineralised exoskeleton and they left an extensive fossil record. Because of the trilobites, this has led to important studies in biostratigraphy, paleontology, evolutionary biology and plate tectonics. Trilobites evolved into many ecological niches; some moved over the seabed as predators, scavengers or filter feeders and some swam where they ate plankton and others crawled onto land. The largest trilobites were more than 70 centimetres (28 in) long and may have weighed as much as 4.5 kilograms (9.9 lb).” Cutter concluded “for the rest of the class I would like you to work on your moddable worksheets and as always I am around to answer any questions that you may have,”

“Good morning,” Cutter began that week’s class as he held onto his usual cup of coffee, “this week we’re going to be looking at Vertebrate paleontology and this is an area of paleontology that seeks to discover, through fossilized remains, the behaviour, reproduction and appearance of extinct vertebrates, which is animals with vertebrae and their descendants. It also tries to connect, by using the evolutionary timeline, the animals of the past and their modern-day relatives. The fossil record shows aspects of the meandering evolutionary path from early aquatic vertebrates to modern fish as well as mammals, birds, reptiles and amphibians with a host of transitional fossils though there are still blank areas.”

“The earliest known fossil vertebrates were heavily armored fish discovered in rocks from the Ordovician period about 485 to 444 million years ago with jawed vertebrates emerging in the following Silurian period about 444 to 419 million years ago with the placoderms and acanthodians. The Devonian period from 419 to 359 million years ago saw primitive air-breathing fish to develop limbs allowing them to walk on land, thus becoming the first terrestrial vertebrates, the Stegocephalians,” he finished, smiling over at Connor for him to continue the lecture.

Connor set his coffee down and picked up his note as he stood for his part of the lecture. "Studying fossiled vertebrates can go a long way in helping us to link the Past to Modern Problems. Here are some of the parallel phenomena we can see evidence of from the past. Climate Change: Paleontological data can help us understand how past climate changes have affected life on Earth, providing a long-term perspective on the current climate crisis. Biodiversity: Vertebrate paleontology helps us understand the history of biodiversity and the factors that have led to its decline or increase, which is relevant to modern conservation efforts. Geologic Correlation: Vertebrate fossils are useful for correlating geological formations across different regions, helping us understand the history of continents and their movements. Tectonic History: Vertebrate fossils can provide evidence of past geographic connections between continents, contributing to a better understanding of tectonic history. These and other clues can help us understand where species came from, how they became what we know today, and can even help us make scientific theories about what the next evolutionary step might be for some species." With a small nod and a smile at Cutter, Connor handed the lecture back over.

Cutter smiled as he continued the class, “for the rest of the class I would like you to go over your moddable worksheets and as always myself and Mr. Temple are here to answer any questions that you may have,”

For the next class, since they had missed last week’s, Cutter and Connor had decided to have an excursion to the Smithsoanian, even though they had come here a few times for their classes Cutter always loved coming here and visiting the collections.

“Good morning,” Cutter began before they let the class go to explore, “today we’re going to be exploring the Smithsonian’s Fossil Collections, which has over 40 million specimens and these fossils and rock samples record the history of life on Earth over the last 3.5 billion years.” he smiled as he looked to Connor to see if there was anything he’d like to add before they started exploring.

"We made little activity sheets for you all, a sort of scavenger hunt of things to look for as you explore the fossil collection and other areas. Professor Cutter and I will also be doing the scavenger hunt (because of course they were) and we can come back at the end of our time and compare notes." Connor gave Cutter a knowing smile and a small wink then turned back to the class. "Other than the common sense rules go and have fun exploring and we will see you all here in a few hours!"

“Good morning,” Cutter began that week’s class, looking a little sheepish as he held onto his morning cup of coffee, “sorry about missing last week,” he apologised, “this week we’re looking at limiting Factors and Biogenic Controls and what promotes species distribution/change and what keeps species in certain areas),”

“A limiting factor refers to any of the factors or variables in an environment capable of limiting a process, such as the growth, abundance, or distribution of a population of organisms in an ecosystem. Limiting factors may be density-dependent or density-independent. Those that are density-dependent tend to limit the growth, abundance, or distribution of a population depending on how dense a population is. Conversely, a density-independent limiting factor is capable of limiting population growth, abundance, or distribution irrespective of population density,” he explained, “Limiting factors may also be single-limiting, i.e. when only one factor limits the system. When a factor causes an indirect restrictive effect or increases the effect of a direct limiting factor, it is termed a co-limiting factor. Examples of limiting factors that could limit the size of a population are food, nutrients, shelter, and mate. These resources are limited in the ecosystem and as a result they could drive living things to compete for them,” he finished, smiling over at Connor for him to continue the lecture.

Connor was also looking a little sheepish as Cutter apologized about missing the previous week. He had a good idea. Most knew why, so there was no point in trying to make up excuses. Instead, he nodded, and as he took another drink from the coffee he held, he continued the lecture.

“Biogenic controls in nature include biological processes that control where and how far a certain species gets- both in their evolutionary transformation as well as their habitat and physical spread and scope. It is these biogenic controls that for example keep deep sea creatures from survive the shallower waters or what keeps polar bears from being a common sight further south. Now, there are many different types of controls that can be seen in nature and that we can see and theorize about from the past as well.”
Connor glanced down at his notes for a moment before continuing. “Biogenic controls can be thought of as roadblocks as such that keep certain bio-organics within a certain confined space. These include things such as food source requirements- kolas and pandas will always struggle because of their very limited dietary needs. Environmental needs also control where a species can live- camels cannot live where there is snow and creatures not adapted for the deserts will not survive the heat and lack of water. Genetics and DNA will play a large role as well- we see this today with Cheetahs who are suffering from genetic bottlenecks and inbreeding due to small population sizes.”

“ These biogenic controls also include things like predation, birth rates, growth and metabolism levels, habitat space, as well as changes that impact these. We see these trends today and studying them can help us better understand what evolutionary path some creatures took millions of years ago.” Conner gave a small nod as he finished and looked back to Cutter with a smile, handing the lecture back over to him.


Cutter smiled as he prepared to finish the class, “for the rest of the day’s class I would like you to go over the worksheets that we’ve laid out for you,” he said, “and as always myself and Mr. Temple are available if you have any questions that need answering,”

Cutter and Connor had been busy all week doing some work for Prospero that by the time the week’s class had come round, they still hadn’t finished. It was just Cutter standing in front of the class today, Connor staying back at the apartment to finish up the work that was needing to be done.

“Mr. Temple sends his apologies for not making it to class,” Cutter started and then looking a little sheepish went on, “and I actually don’t have anything prepared for class so I thought we would take it easy today and have a movie day,” he said as he went to turn the movie on.

“Good morning,” Cutter began that week’s class, holding his usual morning cup of coffee, “this week we’re going to be looking at the fossil record,” he said, “the fossil record is the history of life as documented by fossils, the remains of imprints of organisms from earlier geological periods preserved in sedimentary rock, In a few cases the original substance of the hard parts of the organism is preserved, but more often the original components have been replaced by minerals, deposited from water seeping through rock. Occasionally the original material is simply removed while nothing is deposited in its place; in this case, all that remains is a mould of the shape of the plant or animal,” he explained and smiled over at Connor for him to continue the lecture.

"Key things that we can gain from the fossil record include the following” Connor said with a nod to Cutter before glancing down at the papers in his hands and then continuing. “Evidence for evolution: fossils demonstrate how organisms changed and adapted over millions of years, providing strong evidence for the theory of evolution. Understanding past environments: analyzing the types of fossils found in a particular rock layer, scientists can reconstruct the climate and ecosystem that existed at that time. Extinction events: The fossil record reveals past mass extinction events, which can help us understand the potential impacts of current environmental changes. Human origins: Fossil evidence of early human ancestors helps us understand our evolutionary history and can help us better understand where we are today.”

“For the rest of the class I’d like you work on a Geologic Mapping activity from the moddable materials provided,” Cutter finished, “and as always myself and Mr. Temple will be around to answer any questions that you may have,”

For class that day Cutter had asked everyone to meet at Portocity and from there to the Smithsonian , “welcome to the Smithsonian,” he began, “for our final class, I thought we could have a look at the fossil lab and see how fossils are prepared, once we’re finished here, feel free to have a look round at the fossil collection as well, which contains over 40 million different fossil specimens and as always I’ll be around to answer any questions that you may have,”

Connor had ended up having to do last minute work for Prospero that morning so it was just Cutter standing in front of the class that morning, he had definitely been helping himself to the latke’s that had been appearing that morning.

“Welcome back,” Cutter said as he stood in front of the class, “I don’t actually have anything prepared for this lecture,” he admitted, “so I thought we would do something simple today and have a movie day,”

“Good morning,” Cutter said as he began that week’s class, “this week we’re going to be looking at Micro and Macro Fossils,” he explained, “starting with micro fossils, a micro fossil is a fossil that is generally between 0.001 mm and 1 mm in size the visual study of which requires the use of light or electron microscopy. A fossil which can be studied with the naked eye or low-powered magnification, such as a hand lens, is referred to as a macrofossil,”

“Microfossils are a common feature of the geological record, particularly from the Precambrian to the Holocene and are more commonly from deposits found in marine environments but they can be found in brackish, fresh water and terrestrial sedimentary deposits,” he went on, “while every kingdom of life is represented in the microfossil record, the most abundant forms are protist skeletons, microbial cysts from the Chrysophyta, Pyrrophyta, Sarcodina, arcitarchs and Chitnozoans, together with pollen and spores from the Vascular plants,”

“A microfossil is a descriptive term applied to fossilized plants and animals whose size is just at or below the level at which the fossil can be analyzed by the naked eye. A commonly applied cutoff point between micro and macro is 1 mm. Microfossils may either be complete (or near-complete) organisms in themselves (such as the marine plankters foraminifera and cocolithophores) or component parts (such as small teeth or spores) of larger animals or plants. Microfossils are of critical importance as a reservoir of paleoclimate information, and are also commonly used by biostratigraphersto assist in the correlation of rock units.

“Meanwhile Macrofossils otherwise known as Megafossils are the preserved remnants of the organic beings and their activities that are large enough to be visible without a microscope. Macrofossils come in many varieties and form in various ways depending on their environment and what is being fossilized including plant, fungi and animal remnants”. Cutter continued, “plant macrofossils include leaf, needle, cone and stem debris and can be used to identify types of plants formerly growing in the area. Such botanical provide a valuable complement to pollen and faunal data that can be used to reconstruct the prehistoric terrestrial environment. Algal macrofossils (for instance, brown kelp, sea lettuce and large stromatolites) are increasingly used to analyze prehistoric marine and aquatic ecoystems The study of these fossils is called paleobotany. Plant macrofossils are increasingly being used along with pollen microfossils to reconstruct past climates.”

“Vertebrate macrofossils include the teeth, skulls and bones.Vertebrate macrofossils are used to reconstruct extinct animals, determine their behaviors and how they evolved. Invertebrate macrofossils include remains such as shells, tests, faunal armor and exoskeletons. The bodies of small and soft bodied invertebrates rarely fossilize. Meanwhile, large and hard bodied invertebrates more commonly fossilize. Well preserved body fossils are of particular use in helping to reassemble extinct animal body structures. Fungi macrofossils include fungal bodies and fillaments and most fungi fossils are found in amber, Fungi fossils are under-researched compared to animal and plant fossils. Macrofossils of fungi are rarer and are more commonly found as microfossils. Trace fossils are fossilized evidence of animal behaviour and include tracks, burrows and dung and Trace fossils are the primary type of fossils used by paleontologist to reconstruct extinct animal behaviors and finally Chemo Macrofossils are fossils are the fossilized chemical remains of an organism. For example coal is the fossilized chemical remains of extinct plant matter.”

“For the rest of the class I would like you to go through the moddable worksheets that have been left out for you,” Cutter finished, “and as always I’ll be around to answer any questions that you may have,”

No sooner had Cutter and Connor gotten back from the trip, then Phillip had called and had wanted Connor back in the lab so it was just Cutter standing in front of the class that day, “welcome back,” he began, “this week we’re going to be talking about Inverterbrete Fossils, which are animals without backbones and they boast a fossil record covering a span of 600 million years and are a prime example of how their abundance, diversity, and wide range of adaptations make them an ideal resource for scientists to use in understanding how our planet has changed over time. Palaeontologists study fossils earn about these extinct animals and how they are related to modern animals and through this can learn  about the history of biodiversity, evolution, extinction events, climate changes, and paleobiogeography,” he explained.

Common kinds of invertebrate fossils include molluscs (snails), arthropods (trilobites), echinoderms and cnidarians (corals), These are all animals that, throughout most of Earth’s geological history, lived in a multitude of habitats including marine, freshwater, and terrestrial. Fossils are any trace of a previously living organism, and although invertebrates do not have “true” bones, they leave behind evidence of their past in the form of shells, molds and casts, track ways, fecal pellets, tubes, and exoskeletons.”

“For the rest of today’s class I would like you to work on the moddable worksheets that have been left out for you and as always if there’s any questions, I will be happy to answer them,”

“Good morning,” Cutter began that week’s class, “this week we’re going to start looking at the different types of fossils and this week we’re going to begin by looking at Trace fossils,” he explained, “trace fossils are a fossil record of biological activity by lifeforms but not the actual remains of the organism itself,” 

“Trace fossils may consist of physical impressions made on or in the substrate by an organism. For example, burrows, bio erosion or erosion caused by the evacuation of liquid waste, footprints, feeding marks and root cavities may all be trace fossils,” he continued, “Traces are better known in their fossilized form than in modern sediments. This makes it difficult to interpret some fossils by comparing them with modern traces, even though they may be extant or even common. The main difficulties in accessing extant burrows stem from finding them in consolidated sediment, and being able to access those formed in deeper water. Trace fossils are best preserved in sandstones he grain size and depositional facies both contributing to the better preservation. They may also be found in shales and limestones,”

“Trace fossils are generally difficult or impossible to assign to a specific maker. Only in very rare occasions are the makers found in association with their tracks. Further, entirely different organisms may produce identical tracks. Therefore, conventional taxonomy is not applicable, and a comprehensive form of taxonomy has been erected. At the highest level of the classification, five behavioural modes are recognized,

• Domichnia, dwelling structures reflecting the life position of the organism that created it.
* Fodinichnia, three-dimensional structures left by animals which eat their way through sediment, such as deposit feeders;
* Pascichnia, feeding traces left by grazers on the surface of a soft sediment or a mineral substrate;
* Cubichnia, resting traces, in the form of an impression left by an organism on a soft sediment;
* Repichnia, surface traces of creeping and crawling.”

“Fossils are further classified into form genera, a few of which are even subdivided to a "species" level. Classification is based on shape, form, and implied behavioural mode,” Cutter concluded, “for this week I have bought some examples of Trace fossils for you to have a look at it and as always if there’s any questions I’ll be happy to help,”

Cutter had made the mistake of checking the news before he had gone to bed last night and he had seen the latest rubbish that Christine had been telling the papers .. he had stayed up late reading them so he was rather tired, he glanced at Connor wondering if Connor had seen those reports but he didn’t know whether he should tell him or wait til after class to ask.

“Welcome back,” Cutter began softly, “this week is the final week of class and I’d like you to give your reports on your favourite creature or dinosaur that we learnt in class this session,” he nodded over at Connor if there was anything he would like to add.

Connor was a little fidgety himself as he clutched a coffee tightly in his hands. He had had about as restful a night as Cutter, and it showed.

“We have enjoyed having you in the class and as always, Professor Cutter and I are here if you have any questions before your presentations. And we are here after class as well if you need anything.”

Cutter nodded, looking at Connor with concern as he did before turning his attention back to the class, “we will be teaching again in the fall and we will be teaching a course on the evolutionary sciences, if you are interested in taking the class and now if there are no further questions, lets begin your final presentations,”

Cutter was rather subdued as he started class that week, he was rather glad that he’d gotten a head start on lesson plans during the break week because the last thing he had felt like doing after the weekend was working on class.

“Welcome back,” he said softly, “this week we’re going to be looking at the Inostrancevia , the Inostrancevia was a carnivorous therapsid that lived in the late Permian period,” he explained, “they lived in Eurasia and the fossils were first discovered in the Arkhangelsk Oblast in Russia in the late nineteenth century,” he gave a small smile and nodded at Connor to continue the lecture.

Connor gave a small known nod and then turned to face the class as he spoke. He had feelings about this particular creature considering a past run-in during an anomaly incursion. But he tried to push that down and just focus on the class.

“Despite this appearance, Inostrancevia was not a dinosaur but rather a class of mammal-like reptiles that lived before most of the known dino species came into existence. Inostrancevia was approximately 10 feet long and weighed around 1,000 pounds. That made it about the size of an American alligator but almost twice its weight. It had a large skull which had large canines that could get as large as 5.9 inches (or about 15 cm). It was a successful hunter but was not successful enough to survive past the “Great Dying” extension event in the early Jurrasic.” Connor gave a small nod to Cutter as he finished up his part of the lecture

“So for the rest of the class I would like you to work on your worksheets,” Cutter nodded, “and as always if you need help myself and Mr. Temple will be available to answer any questions you may have,”

Well, they had done it. Somehow, even with everything going on, they had made it to the end of the class. And Connor was just going to take a moment to appreciate that before turning his attention to the class.

“Well, we have made it to the final class. And I just want to say it’s been a good one and I think you all have done well with the assignments. That brings us to the last assignment for this class. Don't worry it will be a fun one,” Connor said with a glance at Cutter and a small wink. “For this class, we just want you to do a small project on your favorite dino or creature we have talked about in class. This can be a small report, a poster of fun facts, you could even make a diorama or something artsy for your chosen creature if you like. Just have fun and show us what you have learned about one of these amazing creatures.” Connor turned toward Cutter with a smile to see if there was anything he wanted to add.

Cutter couldn’t believe that they had made it to the last of the class with everything that had been going on either and he smiled over Connor, “we will be continuing our class next session if you would like to continue learning about different dinosaurs and ancient creatures, in the meantime myself and Mr. Temple will be here to answer any further questions you may have or if you’d like any help with your assignments,” he nodded at the students, “we’re looking forward to seeing what you come up with,”

Cutter waited as long as he could for Connor to turn up to class, he glanced down at his phone to see if Connor had messaged him to say that he wouldn’t be coming in . Maybe Connor just needed space before he felt okay being able to teach class with Cutter again … but this wasn’t like Connor to not bother turning up at all. He bit his lip, wondering if he should just cancel class and go check on Connor but … he was trying really hard to give Connor his space now and maybe … this was all just part of it …

He took a deep breath and stared at the class, clearly he was going to be running it solo today, “okay, let’s get started … this week we’re going to be covering dreadnoughtus,” he began, “the Dreadnoughtus were from the late Cretaceous period and based on the rock deposits, they were found in southern Patagonia, Argentina, what makes the Dreadnoughtus particularly interesting is that it’s only known from two fossils and these were described in 2014,” Cutter had been rather fascinated to discover all of this when he had been preparing for class, “the larger of the two fossils had 115 bones and this only represented 70 percent of the dinosaur’s skeleton behind its head, now using these fossils …scientists have been able to determine that the Dreadnoughtus was a herbivore, it was 9 metres tall and it had an 11 metre length neck and this allowed it to eat from the leaves high up in the trees and so it didn’t have to rely as much on food from the ground,”

He stoped, checking his phone again incase there was a message from Connor but still nothing, “for the rest of the class I’d like you to work on your worksheets and I’ll be around to answer any questions,”

Class is over here today for the field trip!

This week Cutter did have a lecture prepared, even after spending a few days as a child over the weekend, “so this week we’re going to continue on with our coverage of extinction periods,” he began as he started to hand out the usual amount of notes that he had prepared.


“Last time we covered the Ordervician - Silurian Extinction and the Devonian Mass Extinction,” Cutter said once the notes had been handed out, “we’re going to cover just one mass extinction event this week and that is one we’ve touched upon earlier this semester and that is the Permian-Triassic Extinction,”

“Since this is considered to be one of the worst mass extinction event that the Earth has currently faced, I thought it should have it’s own lecture,” he explained, “this extinction event is also known as the Great Dying and it happened 252 million years ago and this caused the extinction over 95 percent of marine and 70 percent of terrestrial species,”

“According to fossil evidence, it is believed that there were large coniferous forests in modern day Europe and like with a number of plants that didn’t survive the extinction event and this is also one of the rare cases where a mass extinction of insects have occurred. One of the few species that weren’t as severely impacted by this extinction event were fungi and this was because there was plentiful dead animal and plant material for them,”

“There are a few different hypothesis on what caused this extinction event and that there were a number of environmental changes that led to this, these include the temperate increasing so that marine life living in shallow waters couldn’t survive, that there was significant changes in the carbon cycle and that this had an impact in regards to the biological cycle during this time following the eruption of the Siberian flood basalts,”

“It is also believed that the environmental changes on land occurred before the impact started to reach the oceans and that is why there is a considerable difference in the impact to the marine and terrestrial species,”

“Now I believe a couple of weeks ago I asked you to do a report into a mass extinction event that we’ve covered, if you hadn’t already done so I’ll extend the report until next week and we’ll present it then,”

“This week we’re going to start looking at extinction events,” Cutter began that weeks lesson as he handed out that week’s set of notes , “a mass extinction event is an event where there is significant loss of Earth’s living species over a short period of geographical time,” he explained, “there have been five mass extinction events that have occurred and these are the Ordervician - Silurian Extinction, the Devonian Mass Extinction, the Permian-Triassic Extinction, the Triassic-Jurassic extol and the Cretaceous-Tertiary Extinction,”

“We’re going to begin to cover the first two mass extinctions today, so the first one we’re covering is the Ordervician - Silurian Extinction Event,” he continued, “this is the first mass extinction event that took place during the Hirnantian Age roughly 445 to 443 million years ago in the Odervician Period and the Rhuddanian Age of the Silurian Period from roughly 443 to 440 million years ago,”

“The Ordovician Period is noted for significant changes regarding Plate Tectonics, Biological and Climate systems,” he went on, “and it also saw some of the most diverse appearance of marine life and the first plants began to appear on and this mass extinction is the second largest in Earth’s history, wiping out nearly 85% of all species at the time” he paused, “you may recall a few weeks ago, I mentioned that the largest mass extinction was at the end of the Permian Period and we will be looking at this in the next lecture,”

“The second mass extinction we’ll be looking at is the Devonian Mass Extinction Events and there were three specific extinction events in this time, each one occurring every ten million years,” he added, “this occurred roughly 419 to 359 million years ago and while there was catastrophic loss of life through these different events, it is estimated that up to 70 to 80 percent of animal life that were living in this time were lost and in particular marine life was the hardest hit in this extinction event,”

“For the next class I would like you to prepare a report on one of these extinction events, looking at the causes of what happened and the impact that they had in shaping the planet as we know today,”

This week Cutter was not hung over, so as much as he would have liked to have just continued with another movie day, especially with the trip being next week he decided to give his lecture that he had originally intended for last week.

“This week we’re going to begin looking at field work in palaeontology and what’s involved,” Cutter explained as he started that week’s lecture, handing out his usual extensive notes , “we’ll do the practical component when we come back from after the break but for this week I thought we’d start covering the theory and look into the Fossil Record since this is one of the tools that is used to help us identify and understand how old a fossil is,”

“The Fossil Record is the history of life and we can study this through the remains of organisms throughout the geographical time periods in sedimentary rocks,” he continued, “the Fossil Record includes organisms such as bones, teeth, eggs and there are two methods used to help us date a fossil, these are relative dating and absolute dating. Relative dating is where studying the Fossil record can be useful, this is where we study the strata of rocks and you can tell the relative age from the position they were found in the rocks. The higher the rock or fossil was located, means that they are younger in age,”

“Absolute dating is where we use radiometric dating methods to determine how precise age of the rock or fossil,”

“Finally the Fossil Record can help us understand evolutionary links, I mentioned the other week that the Archaeopteryx is an example of understanding the evolution from dinosaurs to birds and the Fossil Record helps us understand this link based on studying the similarities and the features to modern birds,”

“This week we’re going to be exploring the last era of the Age of the Dinosaurs and that is the Cretaceous Period,” Cutter began that week’s lecture, handing out his normal stack of notes. “As we did last week, we’ll start with our reports on the animals from the Jurassic Period that I asked you to prepare last week,”

Once the last report had been presened, Cutter resumed his lecture.

“The Cretaceous Period also happens to be the longest of the previous periods and covers a span of 79 million years, lasting from 145 million years to 66 million years ago,” there was a pause, “the Cretaceous Period is known for being much warmer in terms of climate - specifically warmer ocean currents, unfrozen poles and relatively higher levels of CO2 emissions,” he explained.

“This is the era where you have some of the more well known dinosaurs such as the Tyrannasaurus Rex, Velociraptor and the Triceratops,”

“I mentioned at the start of the lecture that this period is the last era of the Mesozoic Era,” Cutter continued, “so what happened to the dinosaurs? Sixty Six million years ago an asteroid caused the chain of events that led to the mass extinction of the dinosaurs, with the exception of the avian dinosaurs, since the avian dinosaurs lineage now survives today in modern bird species,” he paused, “and this is known as the Cretaceous-Paleonge Extinction Event, which also happens to be the last of the five major extinction event that the Earth has experienced - we will be covering these events later on in the semester but we’ve briefly talked about two of them during the last couple of weeks covering the Mesozoic Era - the Permian-Triassic Extinction Event and the Cretaceous-Paleonge Extinction Event ”

“Next week we will be moving on to a different topic but I would like you to write a report on an animal that lived in the Cretaceous period to present next week,”

In what was perhaps a first for Cutter, he had shown up to his class two weeks in a row. He didn’t have Rex with him this week so he felt it was safe to leave the windows open for the class.

“Good morning,” he said as he stared the lecture, “this week we’re going to begin covering dinosaurs, which seemed to be a point of interest for most of you last week, this is easily a big enough topic to cover an entire course but we’ll go through the cliff notes version over the next few weeks to give an overview of just how dinosaurs came to evolve,”

“Last week I mentioned Rex was from the Permian period, which is actually a good segue into talking about the ‘Age of the Dinosaurs’ so to speak,” he explained as he began to hand out his different notes on the topic, “the first period we’re going to be covering today is the Triassic Period , which picks up where the Permian left off after its mass extinction event,”

“The end of the Permian saw nearly 90 percent of all life of Earth wiped out,” he continued, once he had handed out his notes, “it was also known as the Great Dying and afterwards, the Triassic Period began nearly 252 million years ago and it is this period that saw the evolution of dinosaurs that we’ve come to understand today,”

“So what is a Dinosaur?” he looked around the class, “dinosaurs are archosaurs, a larger group of reptiles that first first appeared at the start of the Triassic Period, there was a lot of changes in this period that allowed for the appearance of the dinosaurs,” he paused, “after the great dying, the climate in particular was less extreme - there were no polar ice caps for instance, the biological habitats weren’t as diverse”

“The landscape was also very different, in the Triassic all the continents were still merged into one supercontinent called Pangea,” he added, “and it was surrounded by a large ocean called Panthalassa,”

“The Triassic Period is the beginning of the Mesozoic Era and in the next couple of weeks we will also be looking at the Jurassic and Cretaceous Periods,” he continued, “The first dinosaurs appeared in the fossil record about 240 million years ago,” he went on, “even though they weren’t the dominant species at the time, some examples of these dinosaurs are theCoaelophysis the Melanorosaurus and the Plateosaurus,'

“For next week, I’d like you to prepare a report on an animal of your choice that lived in the Triassic period, you will be expected to give a brief presentation as well on your research,”