The extinctions MOOC

Extinctions: Past and Present, UCT’s latest free massive open online course (MOOC), explores the previous five mass extinctions on Earth.

Participants will learn how each event affected the existing lifeforms and how they have ultimately shaped our planet’s biodiversity.

Each week of the MOOC will include short lectures and discussions with palaeontologists and other scientists, many of whom are from UCT, about past extinctions and their research into the threats that modern ecosystems face.

In addition to past extinctions, the course looks at the human impact on Earth’s ecosystems and the rising threat of a sixth extinction.

The course will be led by acclaimed palaeobiologist Professor Anusuya Chinsamy-Turan from UCT’s Department of Biological Sciences. A global expert on the microscopic structure of the bones of extinct and extant vertebrates, she is also the 2013 recipient of the World Academy of Science’s Sub-Saharan Prize for the Public Understanding and Popularization of Science.

Learn more about the MOOC, which starts on 20 March 2017.