Mumbai-based organisation plans course to bring public closer to palaeontology

Steven Spielberg’s Jurassic Park, the science-fiction and action film, in a way connected the common people of several generations with palaeontology!

Dinosaurs are always exciting, but palaeontology is not just about these giant creatures that once roamed the Earth and went extinct some 67 million years ago.

Palaeontology is the study of the history of life on Earth based on fossils, which are the remains of plants, animals, fungi, bacteria, and single-celled living things that have been replaced by rock material or impressions of organisms preserved in rock.

For the first-time in India, palaeontology as a science is being taken closer to the people thanks to the efforts of Mumbai-based India Study Centre Trust (INSTUCEN) in organising a five-day course.

INSTUCEN Trust’s Managing Trustee Mugdha Karnik said that the online course would be held from 7-11 June.

“This is for the first time in India that such a course is being held when a complex subject like palaeontology would be taken to the commoners,” said Dr Kurush Dalal, a veteran archaeologist, historian and culinary anthropologist.

Dr Prateek Chakraborty of Pune-based Deccan College Post-Graduate and Research Institute will be conducting the course.

The modules include: An Introduction to Palaeontology, Geological timelines and the history of life on Earth, the origins of modern life, Methodology: Basic Field methods and Advanced Methods Laboratory applications.

One of the finest teachers and experts in the field, Dr Chakraborty will guide people through the cultural and scientific antecedents of 19th-century palaeontology to modern era technologies like dating, bone histology, osteology among others.