Texts


Evolution

by Bergstrom and Dugatkin
ISBN: 0393937933

The Beak of the Finch

by Jonathan Weiner
ISBN: 0679400036

Schedule



Date Week Topic Reading Tasks Due Lecture notes
Thursday, Jan. 4 1 Student lightning talks, Quiz, VO and RP hurrican talks about how we feel about the subject of evolution "Beak of the Finch."
[Dhobzansky, 1976]
-- To be uploaded soon
Tuesday, Jan. 9 2 Consider the Leviathan. The evolution of the whale. Whales as a case study to illuminate the way that fossils have informed us about the history of life on earth adn the truism that all is change (RP). Chapter 4 (Phylogeny and Evolutionary History) -- TBD
Tuesday, Jan. 9 Lab History of life on a Ribbon. TBD -- --
Thursday, Jan. 11 2 What the DNA says. A study of whales from the standpoint of DNA. This is our first serious foray into "molecules as documents of evolutionary history." (RP) TBD -- TBD
Tuesday, Jan. 16 3 What happens when a whale dies? The microbial world revealed.
Microbes and evolution.
The history of microbes - microbial "fossils."
Lynn Margulis, everything interesting in evolution happened before animals. (VO)
TBD -- [VO Jan. 16 slides]
Tuesday, Jan. 16 Lab DNA science and evolution. Examination of DNA evidence. -- -- --
Thursday, Jan. 18 3 Microbes and the mechanisms of evolution.
Horizontal gene transfer. (VO)
  • [Eme et al., 2017]
  • Chapter 5 (Inferring Phylogeny)
  • -- [VO Jan. 18 slides]
    Tuesday, Jan. 23 4 Island biogeography of amphibians. (RP) TBD -- [RP Jan. 23 slides]
    Tuesday, Jan. 23 Lab DNA science and island biogeography. TBD --
    Thursday, Jan. 25 4 Island biogeography continued.
    The voyages of the great naturalitsts Wallace and Darwin. (RP)
    TBD -- [RP Jan. 25 slides]
    Tuesday, Jan. 30 5 Galapagos and island biogeography.
    Introduction to the forces of evolution - mutation, drift, selection, migration. (RP)
    TBD -- TBD
    Tuesday, Jan. 30 Lab Population genetics I. TBD -- --
    Thursday, Feb. 1 5 Selection in a microbial setting.
    Reasons why styding microbes is ideal for experimental evolution. (VO)
    TBD -- [VO Feb. 01 slides]
    Tuesday, Feb. 6 6 Experimental evolution and the Lenski experiment. (RP) TBD -- TBD
    Tuesday, Feb. 6 Lab Luria-Delbrück part I.
    Population genetics computation.
    TBD -- --
    Thursday, Feb. 8 6 Experimental evolution to study genetic drift in flies - The Buri experiment on eye color. (RP) TBD -- TBD
    Tuesday, Feb. 13 7 The general insights of population genetics. (RP) TBD -- TBD
    Tuesday, Feb. 13 Lab Luria-Delbrück part II. TBD -- --
    Thursday, Feb. 15 7 Symbiosis.
    Insecticide resistance in beetles - Japan burkholderia.
    Wolbachia & sex. (VO)
    TBD -- TBD
    Tuesday, Feb. 20 8 Symbiosis, morphological changes.
    Chemosynthesis.
    Adaptation biogeochem. (VO)
    TBD -- [VO Feb. 20 slides]
    Tuesday, Feb. 20 Lab Lenski experiment on lab evolution part I. TBD -- --
    Thursday, Feb. 22 8 In class presentations of symbiotic associations. TBD -- TBD
    Tuesday, Feb. 27 9 Human evolution. TBD -- TBD
    Tuesday, Feb. 27 Lab Lenski experiment part II. TBD -- --
    Thursday, Mar. 1 8 Human evolution. TBD -- TBD
    Tuesday, Mar. 6 Lab Symbiosis + FISH. TBD -- --