Do Paleontology in Canada?

Question

I would like to study what is the degree of paleontology, But that universities in Canada offer the degree?

Answer 1

Try these links:

http://canadaonline.about.com/od/dinosau...

http://publish.uwo.ca/~ctsujita/paleodiv...

http://www.science.gc.ca/Earth/Environme...

Answer 2

Geological Survey of Canada

Paleontology

Geological applications

Paleontology is applied in many and diverse ways to geological mapping, research, and mineral exploration.

Introduction

Paleontology was one of the founding disciplines of the science of geology, and we practice it today. Fossils large and small spawned biostratigraphy, the best technique ever created for dating ancient rocks. The interrelated concepts of geological time, the evolution of life, global mass extinctions, and interdependent earth systems rank among the most fundamental and awesome scientific contributions of all time. Surely paleontology, which is so central to these themes, is more critical to geological training and general life-appreciation skills now than it has ever been. Paleontology is the study of nothing less than the entire history, including crises, of past animal and plant life on this planet that we call home. The geological time scale does not exist without this core discipline of geology, and any interpretations deriving from it, such as geological maps and cross-sections in Phanerozoic terranes, are only as good as the age data that they imply.

With fossil zones averaging less than 1 Ma in duration for many geological systems ( Callomon, 1984; Cope, 1993) and becoming more refined with each passing year of research, no other component of ancient sedimentary rocks offers anything close in time-stratigraphic resolution. What this means is that all attempts to reconstruct paleogeographies without paleontology are doomed to be inaccurate, often grossly so. This is a strong statement and is meant to be. In particular, paleofacies maps based on log correlations that purport to portray former land and seascapes generally do not. What they do show are areal configurations of rock units that are determined by the correlation of petrophysical measurements, tempered in some cases by core and cuttings descriptions. Shaw (1964) has best shown the entirely contradictory transgressive-regressive histories that result from recognition of diachronous facies equivalents contrasted with those derived from the more commonly generated lithofacies maps alone. Fossils are unequalled tools for understanding the sedimentary rock record and what has happened to it for several reasons. Because of organic evolution and extinction events, empirical successions of fossils can be recognized, making them unrivalled time indicators. This process is called BIOSTRATIGRAPHY. Because animals and plants lived in equilibrium with their environment, fossils found in their original setting provide valuable data regarding that environment, including its chemical characteristics. When they are transported from their living environment, they provide data regarding that transport and the factors relating to it. These various studies are mutually interrelated and comprise PALEOECOLOGY, PALEOBIOGEOCHEMISTRY, and TAPHONOMY. They are closely linked with their companion discipline, sedimentology, which is the study of the host sediments.

Animal and plant groups are not generally spread across the globe, but live in particular regions to which they are restricted by living conditions, competition and predation, and within which they evolved distinctive traits. Fossils therefore serve as indicators of ancient biotic provinces, and their study is PALEOBIOGEOGRAPHY. Similarities from one area to another indicate connections, such as similar climates, or connecting seaways or landmasses, powerful tools in the construction of paleogeographical maps. Together with paleoecological characteristics, these data are a basis for the interpretation of ancient climates and depositional conditions that might have produced hydrocarbon-generating source rocks or reservoirs.

Most fossils are composed of carbonate or phosphate combined with organic material. They are affected by heat, pressure, surrounding fluid composition and all the other agents that change the character of sedimentary rocks after they are deposited. Thus fossils are sensitive indicators of THERMAL ALTERATION, a powerful tool in predicting hydrocarbon generation potential.

All these topics contribute fundamental data to the analysis of sedimentary basins, and to the exploration for coal, oil and gas, which are themselves the remains of ancient life.

Biostratigraphy

The earliest, and still most important, use of fossils is in biostratigraphy. The importance of fossils for the correct identification of rock units was recognized late in the seventeenth century. The early applications of biostratigraphy to road and canal construction in areas of shallow bedrock in England were employed empirically well before the major features of evolution were stated by Darwin, Wallace and others. A vastly expanded knowledge base, backed by a sound theoretical framework, ensures that paleontology continues to play a major role in sedimentary basin studies. With continuing study, not only are the ranges of useful fossils becoming finer, more certain, and applicable across broader areas, but a larger number of fossil groups are becoming useful.

Exploring for hydrocarbons and minerals is expensive, and involves many sophisticated techniques. It is deserving of the most reliable data available. Imprecise data and inaccurate correlations cannot be used to identify inconsistencies in interpretations, and can only sustain meaningless speculation. Without precise, biostratigraphically based correlations, you can't recognize mistakes, or confirm true relationships and their implications. Paleontology provides a risk-reduction tool, as well as a source of critical primary data for sedimentary basin interpretations.

It is a basic truth in stratigraphy that shifting depositional environments produce lithological units that are diachronous ("Walther's Law"). Correlation of lithological units or their subsurface indicators on the basis of their physical characteristics results in conceptual models that often do not reflect the actual spatial distribution of ancient sedimentary systems at particular moments of geological time, even if the rock correlations are accurate. Time correlations provided by fossils permit the spatial relationships of differing environments and lithologies to be recognized and allow paleogeographic reconstructions to be drawn.

Progress in biostratigraphy requires continuing development of its techniques and tools. Principal among them is taxonomy, the documentation of the similarities and differences between different fossil species and higher taxa, leading to the differentiation of their relative stratigraphic positions. As taxonomic research continues, taxa are either subdivided or grouped to reflect current views and enhance their usefulness, and examples of homeomorphy and evolutionary lineages and extinction events become better understood.

Modern approaches tend to emphasize the development of zonations in previously poorly known taxonomic groups, such as Radiolaria; the integration of zonations based on different fossil groups; and correlations among different basins and fossil provinces, between nonmarine basinal and shelf successions, and between surface and subsurface sections. International programs, where reconstructions and correlations are supraregional in scale, especially demonstrate the need for additional and more highly refined paleontological data.

Even in thoroughly collected, relatively well known areas of Europe, new biostratigraphic data are constantly being unearthed, and the geological interpretations deriving from them are undergoing constant revision. Current workers worldwide continue to be excited by important fossil finds, and by modern multitaxial correlation projects. The importance of such new discoveries are all the more applicable to the vast terranes of countries such as Canada, where our knowledge of the basic geology and paleontology is to a large extent still in the reconnaissance stages, the latter especially in the subsurface of the Western Canada Sedimentary Basin.

Sequence stratigraphy

With modern high-definition seismic techniques and processing capabilities, there is no problem identifying seismic sequences. The principles of seismic or any other sequence analysis are simple but they can include mechanisms that ensure apparent internal consistency, shielding us from knowledge of the errors that would be recognized if other appropriate tools were applied. With a modicum of sedimentological data, appropriate facies can be assigned. Add the three-dimensional component and we've not only mapped the depositional units and facies, but we've also revealed the accretionary processes in time and space!

If only it were that easy. The enormous power and potential of sequence stratigraphy can only be properly harnessed if we know with precision the geological ages of the rocks within and around our proposed sequences. Only then do we have evidence of the validity of the sequences themselves, their temporal relation with other sequences above and below them, and their relation with apparently equivalent sequences elsewhere (Poulton, 1988; Sageman, 1992). Much has been written about the circular reasoning inherent in the concept of correlating imprecisely dated sequences globally, and then using the interpreted correlations as a dating tool in their own right. Clearly any proliferation of sequence stratigraphic studies should be accompanied by the required paleontological studies.

Too often in sequence stratigraphic studies, the tools by which interpretations can be verified and refined are judged to be simply not worth the considerable effort that detailed technical verifications can provide, and too often when they have been applied after a sequence model has already been developed, they have destroyed entirely the model they were meant to support. Paleontology serves less than optimally as a late-stage

Answer 3

Hobbit,en Canada no solo existe lo que usted quiere estudiar,y universidades de muy buena calificacion,solo depende de usted,"""" no hay cosas imposibles,solo hombres incapaces """"Suerte.