BIOL 314 - Dinosaurs and the Science of Life

    Recent Professors
    Stanley A. Wright
    Recent Semesters
    Spring 2026, Spring 2025
    Class Size
    Not published
    Credits
    3
    Prerequisite
    None.
    Spring 2026 Sections
    View Spring 2026 sections of BIOL 314
    Transfers To
    UC and CSUCal-GETC Area 5B · IGETC Area 5B · CSU GE Area B2
    Description
    This course investigates the evolution, form, function, and extinction of dinosaurs as a means of introducing students to scientific principles that are common to all forms of life on Earth. Topics will include scientific methodology; the mechanisms of evolution; the structure, early history, and geologic processes of the Earth; the evolutionary history of life on Earth; the diversity, ecology, physiology and behavior of dinosaurs; birds as dinosaurs. Additional topics will include proposed mechanisms of dinosaur extinction including meteorite impacts, volcanic plume events, global winters, global climate change, acid rain, and how each may occur today; genetics, the structure and function of DNA, cellular reproduction, cloning and stem cell technologies and whether they can be used to resurrect extinct organisms such as dinosaurs.
    Usually Held
    Tue Thu 1:30pm–2:50pm