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A student cleans a fossil with a tool.

Paleontology

Paleontology is a basic science concerned with the evolutionary history of life. Areas of detailed knowledge will include vertebrate and invertebrate paleobiology, evolutionary biology, systematics, functional morphology, sedimentology, stratigraphy, and platetectonics.

Department
Degree

Honours Bachelor of Science

Program Options

Major

Program Plans

Plan your degree with these academic and co-curricular program overviews.

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Potential Career Options
  • Paleontologist
  • Researcher
  • Archivist
  • Museum Worker
  • Professor
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Admission Requirements

Admission Category
OUAC Code
TML
Competitive Average
Low to Mid 80s
Program Course Prerequisites
ENG4U, MHF4U, SBI4U, SCH4U; (recommended: Calculus)

Regional Requirements

Admissions Requirements

Life in Paleontology

Sample Courses

This course will examine the complex nature of minerals and crystals from a geological, physical and chemical perspective and will introduce the petrology of volcanic rocks, intrusive plutonic rocks, metamorphic rocks, and sedimentary rocks.

An introduction to geological time and the dynamic evolution of the surface of the Earth. Lectures discuss the processes involved in the deformation of Earth's crust including mechanical principals, stress, and strain. Particular focus on the structure of rocks.

The integration of the major organ systems involved in human biomechanics. A comparative approach is taken, placing the structure and function of the skeletal, muscular and nervous systems in an evolutionary context.

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