This course charts the evolution of plant groups, vegetation types and associated faunas (arthropods and vertebrates) from the colonisation of the land to the end of the Neogene. The lecture component of the course has three themes (i) Preservation and taphonomy (i.e.survival in the fossil record and reconstruction of organisms from fragmentary fossils) (ii) Ecosystem processes (e.g. fire) and (iii) selected case histories of terrestrial ecosystems through time. The practical sessions develop skills in critical appraisal of methods and use hands on research techniques to study terrestrial fossils. Two day visits to Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, and the Palaeontology branch of the Earth Department of the Natural History Museum enable students to see otherwise unavailable fossils and some of their living (plant) relatives and to consider the public understanding of, and collections relevant to, Terrestrial Palaeoecology.