JMU Copy Center Lecture Notebook.    JMU Copy Center Lab Notebook.      Most contemporary invertebrate paleontology textbooks are concerned primarily with the history of invertebrate life during the past 600 million years. This is the traditional subject matter of such courses. I, however, am interested in the history of life on Earth, which not only must include Moneran and Protist groups, but also events extending back into the Archaean and Proterozoic, back to the origin of the earth at 4 billion years ago. Similarly I am interested in reconstructing ancient ecosystems and the biogeochemical pathways of the past. No single textbook does this. Instead I have drawn from any source with the requisite information, and compiled all this information into the lecture notebook.      The lab examines the common fossil record, and for Monera this means primarily stromatolites. Beyond that the record is mostly selected protoctist phyla with skeletons (foraminifers, radiolaria, etc.), and the invertebrate phyla, which have by far the vastest fossil record. But, we are interested in them since they tell us so much about how multicellular life evolved. But, again no one textbook does this as I wish to do it. So, the information we need has been compiled into the Laboratory notebook. Return to Home Page