Lecture 1. What is paleontology? -- Lecture 2. Bringing fossils to life -- Lecture 3. Putting the history of life together -- Lecture 4. What paleontologists do -- Lecture 5. The Precambrian life begins -- Lecture 6. The Paleozoic era: life branches out -- Lecture 7. The Mesozoic era: the age of dinosaurs -- Lecture 8. The Cenozoic era: the age of mammals.