Fandom High School

That morning Connor and Cutter were joined in class by Tabby and Teddy who were looking curiously around the room but staying close to their dads.

“Good morning,” Cutter began that day’s class, “we actually didn’t have a class planned this week so we’re going to have a nice simple class today and have a movie   day instead,” he explained and then went to press play.

Cutter and Connor were at the front of the class but there were no notes or handouts ready to go this lesson, Cutter was looking a little sheepish, “so we don’t actually have a lesson plan for today,” he admitted, “so we thought after last week that we would watch a movie instead,”

Then he went to press play on the player and was trying his best to not look so awkward but he wasn’t succeeding very well.

[its been a week for both of us so its a movie class today!]

“Good morning,” Cutter began that day’s lecture, “this week we’re going to be looking at paleovirology,” he explained, “paleovirology is the study of viruses that existed in the past but are extinct and they cannot leave behind physical fossils,”

“This is where we use indirect evidence to reconstruct the past, viruses can cause their host to evolve and that this evolution leaves signatures that can be found and interpreted in present day, “ he nodded over at Connor with a smile for him to continue the lecture.

Connor was glad to be back at class after having a few weeks off. He smiled at Cutter as he stood up and faced the class as he continued the lecture. “Have you ever wondered why a different strain of flu virus comes around every year? Or how some viruses can become drug-resistant? The short answer to these questions is that viruses evolve. That is, the "gene pool" of a virus population can change over time. In some cases, the viruses in a population—such as all the flu viruses in a geographical region, or all the different ‘mutated’ particles in a patient's body—may evolve by natural selection.”

Connor glanced at his notes and then continued. “Not only do viruses evolve, but they also tend to evolve faster than their hosts, such as humans. That makes virus evolution an important topic—not just for biologists who study viruses, but also for doctors, nurses, and public health workers, as well as anyone who might be exposed to a virus. And of course this means, all of us! What we can deduce from the DNA and fossils of animals we find can help us understand how viruses evolved millions of years ago and how that can help us better fight viruses today.” Connor looked at Cutter and gave a small nod as he wrapped up his section.

“For the rest of the class, I’d like you to fill out your worksheets and as always myself and Mr. Temple will be around to answer any questions you may have,” Cutter said as he finished handing out the worksheets on the topic.

There was an email sent round to the students early that morning.

Class has been cancelled, due to your teachers both being unwell. Enjoy the extra week off before vacation.

- Professor Cutter


[its still being a week for both of us, sorry for class being cancelled]

“Good morning,” Cutter began that week’s class, “this week we’re going to be looking at vertebrate and invertebrate paleontology, I’ll be covering the vertebrate portion of the lecture and Mr. Temple will covering the invertebrate topic,’ he explained, he also had with him several samples that he would be showing the class after a quick and very handwavey check in on the mainland with Becker and to get some additional books and fossils that he and Connor needed for their classes.

“Vertebrate palaeontology is the subfield of paleontology that aims to discover through the study of fossilised remains the behavior, reproduction and appearance of extinct vertebrates and this includes 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 vertebrae to modern fish as well as mammals, birds, reptiles and amphibians, the earliest known fossil vertebrate were heavily armoured fish discovered in rocks from the Ordovician period 485 to to 444 ma with jawed vertebrates emerging in the following Silurian period from 444 to 419 ma with the placoderms and acanthodians. The Devonian Period from 419 to 359 ma saw primitive primitive air-breathing fish to develop limbs allowing them to walk on land, thus becoming the first terrestrial vertebrates, the Stegocephali.”

“Now there is a gap that is known in palaeontology as Romer’s gap that doesn’t give us much in regards to these Stegocephali but thanks to the fossil record we do know that as a result vertebrae were able to adapt to life on land as a result, tetrapods first appeared in the Carboniferous and Temnospondyli were prominent in the ecosystem and became the first vegetable megafauna as a result,”

“The Permian period from 299 to 252 ma, saw two distinct groups emerge the Synaspids and the Therapsids, the Great Dying however wiped out most of the Synaspids but this is where we have our first appearance of mammals during the time of dinosaurs in the Triassic Era 252 to 201 ma and we also have the first ancestral birds appearing as well,”

“The K-Pg mass extinction wiped out many vertebrate clades and these included Pterosaurs, Plesiosauria, Mosasaurs and nearly all dinosaurs. It wasn’t until the Paleogene after the mass extinction that we began to see the dominance of birds and reptiles,” Cutter finished and gave a smile for Connor to continue on with the lecture.

Connor nodded as he put down the jump coffee and ran his hands through his hair. “Right, so Invertebrate Paleontology conducts research, research training and graduate education on the world’s fossil invertebrates – their relevance to evolutionary theory, their phylogenetic significance, as well as their paleobiogeography, paleoecology, and morphology. This includes large, diverse taxonomic groups such as mollusks (e.g., bivalves and gastropods), brachiopods (e.g., lamp shells), corals, arthropods (e.g., crabs, shrimps, and barnacles), echinoderms (e.g., sand dollars, sea urchins, and sea stars), sponges, annelids (worms), foraminifera (single-celled protists), and bryozoans (moss animals).

These are all animals that, throughout most of Earth’s geological history, lived in a multitude of habitats including marine, freshwater, and terrestrial. Fossils as we have already covered 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, imprint casts, trackways, fecal pellets, tubes, and exoskeletons. Fossil invertebrates are useful in many types of scientific studies, including pure systematics, applications in stratigraphy, and studying and reconstructing prehistoric environments.”
Connor picked up one of the books they had with them and showed the class “We brought several books today for us to look through. This one is specifically about the fossil collections at the Field Museum. There is a very nice section in here that talks about their invertebrate fossil collection” Connor flipped to the right section and read a small excerpt from it: “The Field Museum’s fossil invertebrate collection started with the purchase of the Ward's Natural Science Establishment collection displayed during the 1893 World's Columbian Exposition in Chicago. The collection has fossils ranging in age from over 550 million years to the present. The collection spans all the geological periods from the Cambrian through Quaternary with a focus on Ordovician through Pennsylvanian fossils”

“The diversity and abundance of invertebrate fossils is truly amazing. Scientists have divided the invertebrates into 33 phyla of which 25 have a fossil record, and of these 25 phyla 15 are represented in the Field Museum’s collections. And of course, they have great photos of most of the collection in this section so I want us to definitely take some time to look through the examples of how fossils of animals without backbones and skeletons at all can be preserved and studied.”

Connor smiled as he nodded back to Cutter and began setting out the books and the sample fossils that they had with them. He figured Cutter could explain a little about the fossils while he set up.

“The samples that we have today are the type of fossils that you can find for the vertebrae and invertebrate,” Cutter explained as he began to show what fossils they had, “ clam shells, trilobites, coral, shark teeth, and drag mark fossil,” he finished, “for the rest of the class, you can take turns going over these fossils, taking notes if you’d like and if you have any questions feel free to ask myself or Mr. Temple,” he finished that class.