Geology 141 - Making the Past: Geosciences in the Makerspace

The great German paleontologist Dolf Seilacher once remarked that "drawing enforces careful observation." As a consequence, Seilacher drew all of the illustrations for his influential scientific publications. Taking Seilacher's insight into three dimensions, in this course we will utilize Mount Holyoke's Makerspace to reconstruct ancient organisms. Studies have shown that well-crafted reconstructions of ancient creatures contribute substantially to improved scientific interpretation of their functional morphology, behavior and paleoecological role(s). We will use Makerspace resources, Pixologic's Sculptris, 3D printing and other tools to improve our understanding of the morphologies and activities of ancient organisms, while gleaning information derived from the rock record to analyze their ancient morphologies and behaviors.