Course Prerequisites: Biol. 1105, 1106 (or equivalent)

Learning objectives: Having completed this course, successful students will be able to:
1. provide examples of the evidence that support evolution by natural selection.
2. list the four postulates that lead to the conclusion of evolution by natural selection
3. list features that are shared by all organisms
4. quantify evolutionary change using population genetic models
5. describe biological processes other than natural selection that lead to evolutionary change
6. describe the processes and evolutionary changes  that result in speciation
7. explain how societal problems like antibiotic resistance result from human-induced evolution
8. explain how phylogenetic trees are constructed and interpreted
9. construct a cladogram for three or more taxa based on ancestral and derived characters,
10. describe general patterns of the increase in organismal diversity over the past 4 billion years.
11. interpret scientific figures and graphs
12. use terms (e. g. population, fitness, adaptation) specific to evolutionary biology correctly.

Class Structure: Lectures are the major educational format for this class.  Videos are in-class materials only (some videos are available in Newman Library, see list on Blackboard).  In-class discussions will be used regularly as an educational tool.  The objective of class discussion is for students to find out what they learned (or not) in class and to apply information from lectures to new situations.

Homework assignments are designed to:

1. test knowledge of important terms and concepts through writing
2. help master difficult material through hands-on exercises
3. help develop analytical skills
4. help evaluate the different kinds of literature that report scientific research

Section I. The Evidence for Evolution
Week  1  Introduction
Week  2  Evolution of Disease, Natural Selection, Science and Religion
Week  3  Adaptation and Natural Section
Week  4  Sexual Selection

Section II. Microevolution: Mechanisms of Evolutionary Change
Week  5  Mutation and Genetic Variation, Hardy-Weinberg Equilibrium
Week  6  Evolution by Natural Selection
Week  7  Evolution by Mechanisms other than Selection

Section III. Macroevolution: Phylogenetics
Week  8  Species and Speciation
Week  9  Phylogenetic analyses
Week 10 Testing phylogenetic hypotheses

Section IV. Macroevolution: Major Events in the History of Life
Week 11  Early History of Life on Earth
Week 12  Developmental Biology (EvoDevo)
Week 13  The Mesozoic: Mammals, Dinosaurs, Birds
Week 14  The Cenozoic: Human Evolution