Open Course Space

Dynamics of Complex Systems: Biological and Environmental Coevolution Preceding the Cambrian Explosion

Massachusetts Institute of TechnologyUnited States12.517
Free, no sign-up neededSpring 2005English
Go to course on MIT OpenCourseWare All 3 ways to take it

This seminar will focus on dynamical change in biogeochemical cycles accompanying early animal evolution – beginning with the time of the earliest known microscopic animal fossils (~600 million years ago) and culminating (~100 million years later) with the rapid diversification of marine animals known as the “Cambrian explosion.” Recent work indicates that this period of intense biological evolution was both a cause and an effect of changes in global biogeochemical cycles.

Description from MIT OpenCourseWare.

Ways to take this course