Quantitative Methods in Paleontology

The students will obtain theoretical knowledge and practical training in key approaches to analysis of paleontological data, including univariate and multivariate analysis of population structure, morphometry and image analysis, analysis of spatial and oriented data, quantitative biostratigraphy and phylogenetic analysis.

1) Ability to apply quantitative approaches to paleontological research and identify methods appropriate to different types of data
2) Practical knowledge of independently acquiring and analysing paleontological data and ability to critically evaluate the results of such analyses

The grade counts 50 % to the module grade, grading is based on a series of tasks that the students work on at home, individually or in small groups, and dicument their results in a written report.

Hausarbeit

See module description.

1. SWS: Introduction to the concept of data in paleontology
2. SWS: Population structure - univarite methods
3. SWS: Population structure - multivariate methods
4. SWS: Practical introduction to data handling with PAST
5. SWS: Practical to multivariate data analysis
6. SWS: Morphometry
7. SWS: Practical introduction to image analysis with ImageJ
8. SWS: Practical to morphometry with MorphoJ
9. SWS: Practical to extraction of morphometric data
10. SWS: Directional data and spatial data analysis
11. SWS: Practical to spatial and directional data
12. SWS: Biostratigraphy data analysis
13. SWS: Phylogenetic data analysis
14. SWS: Practical to phylogenetic data analysis

Notebook-Pool, Tabellenkalkulation mit Excel