Content Official Master's Degree in Paleobiology and Fossil Record

Ideal student profile

The student must be in possession of a Degree or Degree in the following degrees:
Biology, Environmental Biology; Earth Sciences (Geology and Marine Sciences and Geological Engineering) or a combination of both (Natural Sciences and Environmental Sciences) or equivalent qualifications.
Graduates or graduates in Biochemistry, Biotechnology, Biomedical Sciences, Genetics, Microbiology; Graduates or graduates in Humanities such as History (in particular, students with knowledge in Archeology or Paleoanthropology). For these students, the coordinator of the master will individually review the academic record, to determine if it is necessary to complete training.
The knowledge of English will be another distinctive character of the master's students, together with the skills to carry out a scientific study and the desire to know the leading techniques in paleontology. The level B2 of English (equivalent to the First Certificate) is considered the minimum necessary to study the master.

Specific skills

• Recognize and use the fossil record applying the theories, paradigms and concepts of evolution and ecology to resolve specific problems of life in the past.
• Identify fossilization processes and avoid taphonomic biases in the study of the biology of organisms from the past.
• Apply evolutionary concepts to resolve geological problems related to the time-ordering of fossils and the sediments that contain them.
• Use paleontological, geological, biological, chemical or physical sources of information to delimit ecological parameters in the past.
• Obtain original data by means of field or lab work and process them adequately to resolve questions of a paleobiological profile.
• Design and carry out research projects in paleobiology and communicate and disseminate the results of the knowledge aquired.
• Demonstrate knowledge about the monitoring of public and private work to dentify and document and document factors affecting paleontological heritage
• Bring the necessary paeontological knowledge for the geology of exploration to the georesources exploitation industry.

Cross-curricular skills

• Gather and synthesize information from scientific literature (library, data bases, online journals, contrasted web pages).
• Use scientific argumentation in English to justify research results
• Analyze data using adequate mathematical tools.
• Defend their own results, respecting and discussing those of others in English.
• Show a critical and self-critical capacity.