GENERAL PRINCIPLES OF PALEONTOLOGY. What the fossils are. Basics of applied Paleontology: Biostratigraphy, Chronostratigraphy, Paleoecology, Paleobiogeography.
Preservation and the fossil record: taphonomy and sedimentology. Biostratinomy processes, burial, diagenesis (fossilization processes).
Collecting methods and processing of fossils for analysis and classification.
Systematics: Taxonomy and classification. The species concept. Taxonomy and phylogeny.
The Evolution of life: evolutionary processes and evolutionary theories.
Fossils and Evolution: the fossils through the geological time, principles of Biostratigraphy, chronostratigraphic units.
Fossils and Environment: Paleoecology. Fossils and lithostratigraphic characters.
Hints of Paleobiogeography: the Mesozoic fossils from the Umbria-Marche facies and from the Latium-Abruzzo facies.

SYSTEMATIC PALEONTOLOGY
Invertebrate Systematics with special reference to brachiopods, cephalopods, bivalves, gastropods, echinoids. Systematics of Protists with special reference to calcareous nannoplankton/nannofossils, foraminifera, radiolaria and diatoms.