Organismic & Evolutionary Biol 597E - ST-Evolution of Life on Earth

The origins and evolution of Earth's present-day biodiversity are documented in detail by fossil and genetic records that are increasingly well-dated through advances in geochronological and molecular techniques. This class presents a survey of the evolution of life on Earth, aiming to provide both graduate students and advanced undergraduates with the chronological outline for the emergence of today's biodiversity in deep time. In addition to understanding the chronology of life, students will read and critically evaluate competing hypotheses for key evolutionary milestones - such as the origin of sexual reproduction, eukaryotes, the amniotic egg, flowers, or powered flight in bird-line archosaurs. When evaluating these hypotheses, students will be asked to draw upon various lines of evidence from physiology and functional morphology, paleobiogeography, functional genomics, phylogenetic history and constraint, and paleoecological data bearing on the specific abiotic and biotic selective pressures presented by ancient environments. Though most of our class will focus heavily on the Phanerozoic Eon - the last 541 million years when all major plant and animal clades appear - we will cover Earth's history from the origin of life to the present-day.

Open to students in the Interdepartmental Life Science Grad Program. Intended for grad students in life sciences, but advanced undergrads considered (email instructor). Students should have solid understanding of basic evolutionary/ecological processes and familiarity with the major groups of extant organisms.

This class will be taught by Darwin Fellow John Rowan.