The aim of the course is to provide students with a deeper insight into the evolutionary processes - both selective and random - which can explain the genetic composition of populations, form, behaviour and distribution of organisms, and to teach students the basic methods of analysing the evolutionary relationships between species.
Knowledge
A student who has completed the course should have solid knowledge of
- natural selection as key to understanding the natural world; how natural selection produces adaptation; the origins of genetic variation; fitness, the common currency for studying adaptive genetic change
- population genetic consequences of selection, mutation, migration (gene flow), inbreeding; genetic drift, an important evolutionary force
- multilocus selection; costs and benefits of sex
- results of natural or artificial selection on quantitative characters: the interplay between heritability and the environment
- evolution of social behavior and kin selection; sexual selection; evolution of life history characters
- how evolutionary thinking gives us insights into human health issues
- phylogenetic thinking: why we need phylogenies for a deeper understanding of all aspects of evolution
- How new species arise; the major species concepts (what is a species?)
- The history of life; the evolution of humans
- evolution and development (EvoDevo)
Skills
Upon completion of the course, a student should be able to:
- understand and explain the main forces of evolution (natural selection, sexual selection, genetic drift) and the interplay among them, both over ecological and evotionary time
- counter arguments against evolution; critically evaluate popularized writings which take up evolutionary topics or use evolutionary argumentation
- generate evolutionary hypotheses for a wide variety of biological phenomena
- read and understand much of the secondary and primary research literature dealing with topics in evolutionary biology
- apply evolutionary principles in her or his own research
General competance
A student who has completed the course will:
- have a better understanding of how science generates knowledge by way of hypothesis testing, systematic observations, and the comparative method
- be able to better distinguish scientific from unscientific arguments
- have gained experience with how to integrate/apply diverse learning methods (reading, discussions, lectures, videos, computer simulations) in biology teaching