Dino 101: Dinosaur Paleobiology
- Free
- No certificate
- Beginner
- 1 week
Dino 101: Dinosaur Paleobiology is a twelve-lesson course from the University of Alberta on non-avian dinosaurs. It starts with appearance and anatomy and how animals die and fossilise, then covers eating, locomotion, birth, growth and reproduction, and attack and defence. The second half turns to the science around dinosaurs: what a species is, evolution, stratigraphy and geologic time, paleogeography and plate tectonics, and finally dinosaur origins and extinction.
Lessons are recorded in museums, fossil-preparation labs and at dig sites, and Coursera estimates them at one to two hours each. The page lists the course at beginner level with no prior experience required on a flexible schedule of one week at ten hours a week, although the course description itself gives an estimated workload of three to five hours a week. Everything is free: the course FAQ says all features are available at no cost, and it states that no certificates, credentials or reports are awarded.
What you’ll learn
- Describe dinosaur anatomy and how fossils form
- Explain what dinosaurs ate, how they moved and how they reproduced
- Apply the concept of a species and evolutionary reasoning to dinosaurs
- Read geologic time and place dinosaurs on a shifting map of the continents
- Summarise current explanations of dinosaur origins and extinction
Who it’s for
Anyone with an interest in dinosaurs and how palaeontologists work; suitable for school-age learners upward with no science prerequisites.
Syllabus
12 sections as listed on coursera.org, 12 h 34 min in total.
- Appearance and Anatomy 1 h 53 min
- Death and Fossilization 1 h 18 min
- Eating 49 min
- Moving Around 1 h 8 min
- Birth, Growth and Reproduction 48 min
- Attack and Defense 1 h 17 min
- What is a Species? 47 min
- Evolution 50 min
- Stratigraphy and Geologic Time 53 min
- Paleogeography and Plate Tectonics 1 h 19 min
- Dinosaur Origins 39 min
- Dinosaur Extinction 53 min
Instructor
- Philip John Currie, PhD Professor and Canada Research Chair, Dinosaur Paleobiology, Department of Biological Sciences, University of Alberta
Course details
- Skills covered
- Life Sciences
- Biology
- Taxonomy
- Includes
- 12 modules · 12 assignments
- Prerequisites
- No prior experience required
- Subtitles
- 22 languages
On coursera.org
Rated 4.9 out of 5 by 3,941 learners; 94,403 enrolled, as shown on the course page on 20 Oct 2026. These are coursera.org’s own figures, not ours.
Source: Coursera (opens in a new tab) · Verified · Report a change
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