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Learner Reviews & Feedback for Paleontology: Ancient Marine Reptiles by University of Alberta

4.9
stars
1,216 ratings

About the Course

Paleontology: Ancient Marine Reptiles is a four-lesson course teaching a comprehensive overview of the evolutionary changes that occur when air-breathing terrestrial animals return to water. This course examines the diversity, adaptations, convergence, and phylogenetic relationships of extinct marine reptiles. Students will explore three major groups of marine reptiles: ichthyosaurs, plesiosaurs, and mosasaurs. Watch a preview of the course here: https://uofa.ualberta.ca/courses/paleontology-marine-reptiles...

Top reviews

JC

Apr 1, 2016

An excellent introduction to the sometimes overlooked marine predators that lived alongside the dinosaurs! A lot of detail is presented here, so be prepared to act like a sponge and soak it all up.

AS

Oct 4, 2022

Learned quite alot about Ichthyosaur and Mosasaur , piqued my interest in going for some advanced course in paleontology , Thank you for such a great course , Hats of the the team behind this .

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301 - 325 of 346 Reviews for Paleontology: Ancient Marine Reptiles

By Carlos G

Jul 10, 2017

Very good

By Eduardo H

Dec 23, 2023

Excelent

By Heron A C

Apr 29, 2021

exelente

By Albert

Dec 30, 2017

Excelent

By Micro J

Feb 5, 2023

Awesome

By Jhon F G L

Feb 23, 2019

Great !

By Dillon T

Jun 19, 2016

Awesome

By Bob T

Nov 29, 2021

superb

By A

May 20, 2022

great

By Kathryn M

Mar 31, 2021

Loved

By Mona A A

May 15, 2021

GOOD

By RAGHUVEER S D

Jul 25, 2020

good

By Jarrad R

May 23, 2019

nice

By Danelle L

Jun 7, 2016

I'

By Kimberly M

Jun 1, 2019

A

By Robert C C

Apr 25, 2016

G

By Daniel H

Jan 18, 2022

Review: I thought this was a nice course. Sometimes the questions gave me pause and forced me to think. One complaint I have is that occasionally statements about functional morphology lack nuance. For example, Kronosaurus is claimed to only be able to hunt prey it could swallow whole due to the lack of cutting edges on its teeth: there are plesiosaur remains with bite marks likely made by Kronosaurus (and these plesiosaurs seem to have been too large to be swallowed whole). Likewise, modern orcas and crocodiles, which also lack sharp cutting edges on their teeth, can easily prey on animals that are too big to be swallowed whole, so this inference does not follow. This course also seems to have a few bits of outdated info. For example, it is now known that Atopodentatus did not have a “zipper mouth”; this was based on a specimen that had a badly crushed skull. Overall, with just a bit more nuance on functional morphology and updated information, this course would be even better.

By Carlo

Sep 9, 2017

Good class! Covers a lot of material very clearly in four weeks. The use of the media is good with in-video quizzes, interactive geologic time scale and phylogenetic tree of life. Course notes are provided for each lessons (they are very well done). The presenter, Scott Persons, a PhD student at the time if I am not mistaken, is great, though he is very surprisingly not credited on the homepage of the course, which is a shame (especially given that he has also written his scripts among other things...) Unfortunately, too often the course sounded too much like a catalog of facts. More scientific reasoning would have been nice.

By Dorothy F S

Nov 9, 2020

Covers comparative evolution and explains how groups adapted to marine environments. Nomenclature-all the subfamilies, etc. was confusing and the evolutionary tree was hard to understand. It would have been good to be able to see all the groups at once on the tree. Liked the updates on research and the maps showing where specimens have been found, Could have gone into the geology a little more.

By Guy M

Apr 11, 2020

There is a great deal of content in this course and as always the course materials are excellent. I would prefer at least two presenters to break up the style of the single presenter used. I find his presenting style quite hard. He sounds patronising when he introduces the quizzes and his pronunciation is at times rather odd. Phil Currie could teach him a thing or two.

By DC

Jun 22, 2018

It's pretty good, though be prepared to be beaten to death with MANY often confusing and nearly unpronounceable taxonomic terms. Can't be helped I guess. Those who took the early vertebrate evolution course will be pleased to note that Mr. (Dr.?) Persons is a bit more subdued in this one with a bit less theatrical style.

By Raena S

Aug 31, 2017

Very cheerful and concisely-speaking instructor! Although the course was vast in information to take it all in and could do better with more questions and quizzes. Very educative videos and data about ancient marine reptile palaentology. Beautiful course!

By Ian A

Mar 8, 2020

This course is a great gateway into this fascinating part of our earth's history, I look forward to learning more from other courses that are offered and would highly recommend this course to others.

By Robert P

May 11, 2020

Loved learning about these animals and learned a lot of things I didn't know already but the amount of video content each week was too much the theropod/bird class progressed in a much nicer manner.

By Katherine M

Oct 16, 2016

Can be extremely complicated with all of the unfamiliar names, and I'd lose focus. As a result, I had a hard time keeping up. I'd recommend pausing and returning another day if you lose focus.