JC
Apr 1, 2016
An excellent introduction to the sometimes overlooked marine predators that lived alongside the dinosaurs! A lot of detail is presented here, so be prepared to act like a sponge and soak it all up.
AS
Oct 4, 2022
Learned quite alot about Ichthyosaur and Mosasaur , piqued my interest in going for some advanced course in paleontology , Thank you for such a great course , Hats of the the team behind this .
By Owais R
•Sep 17, 2017
Its worth
By Carlos G
•Jul 10, 2017
Very good
By Eduardo H
•Dec 23, 2023
Excelent
By Heron A C
•Apr 29, 2021
exelente
By Albert
•Dec 30, 2017
Excelent
By Micro J
•Feb 5, 2023
Awesome
By Jhon F G L
•Feb 23, 2019
Great !
By Dillon T
•Jun 19, 2016
Awesome
By Bob T
•Nov 29, 2021
superb
By A
•May 20, 2022
great
By Kathryn M
•Mar 31, 2021
Loved
By Mona A A
•May 15, 2021
GOOD
By RAGHUVEER S D
•Jul 25, 2020
good
By Jarrad R
•May 23, 2019
nice
By Danelle L
•Jun 7, 2016
I'
By Kimberly M
•Jun 1, 2019
A
By Robert C
•Apr 25, 2016
G
By Daniel H
•Jan 18, 2022
Review: I thought this was a nice course. Sometimes the questions gave me pause and forced me to think. One complaint I have is that occasionally statements about functional morphology lack nuance. For example, Kronosaurus is claimed to only be able to hunt prey it could swallow whole due to the lack of cutting edges on its teeth: there are plesiosaur remains with bite marks likely made by Kronosaurus (and these plesiosaurs seem to have been too large to be swallowed whole). Likewise, modern orcas and crocodiles, which also lack sharp cutting edges on their teeth, can easily prey on animals that are too big to be swallowed whole, so this inference does not follow. This course also seems to have a few bits of outdated info. For example, it is now known that Atopodentatus did not have a “zipper mouth”; this was based on a specimen that had a badly crushed skull. Overall, with just a bit more nuance on functional morphology and updated information, this course would be even better.
By Carlo
•Sep 9, 2017
Good class! Covers a lot of material very clearly in four weeks. The use of the media is good with in-video quizzes, interactive geologic time scale and phylogenetic tree of life. Course notes are provided for each lessons (they are very well done). The presenter, Scott Persons, a PhD student at the time if I am not mistaken, is great, though he is very surprisingly not credited on the homepage of the course, which is a shame (especially given that he has also written his scripts among other things...) Unfortunately, too often the course sounded too much like a catalog of facts. More scientific reasoning would have been nice.
By Dorothy F S
•Nov 9, 2020
Covers comparative evolution and explains how groups adapted to marine environments. Nomenclature-all the subfamilies, etc. was confusing and the evolutionary tree was hard to understand. It would have been good to be able to see all the groups at once on the tree. Liked the updates on research and the maps showing where specimens have been found, Could have gone into the geology a little more.
By Guy M
•Apr 11, 2020
There is a great deal of content in this course and as always the course materials are excellent. I would prefer at least two presenters to break up the style of the single presenter used. I find his presenting style quite hard. He sounds patronising when he introduces the quizzes and his pronunciation is at times rather odd. Phil Currie could teach him a thing or two.
By DC
•Jun 22, 2018
It's pretty good, though be prepared to be beaten to death with MANY often confusing and nearly unpronounceable taxonomic terms. Can't be helped I guess. Those who took the early vertebrate evolution course will be pleased to note that Mr. (Dr.?) Persons is a bit more subdued in this one with a bit less theatrical style.
By Raena S
•Aug 31, 2017
Very cheerful and concisely-speaking instructor! Although the course was vast in information to take it all in and could do better with more questions and quizzes. Very educative videos and data about ancient marine reptile palaentology. Beautiful course!
By Ian A
•Mar 8, 2020
This course is a great gateway into this fascinating part of our earth's history, I look forward to learning more from other courses that are offered and would highly recommend this course to others.
By Robert P
•May 11, 2020
Loved learning about these animals and learned a lot of things I didn't know already but the amount of video content each week was too much the theropod/bird class progressed in a much nicer manner.