Offered every semester -- I teach this course in the fall, 4 credits, lab

“From so simple a beginning, endless forms most beautiful and most wonderful have been, and are being, evolved.” Darwin’s final words in The Origin of Species are an apt characterization of this course, which focuses on the diversity of life forms (morphology, physiology, genetics) and their respective evolutionary origins and relationships (phylogeny). Using recent findings from such diverse fields as molecular genetics, developmental biology, and paleontology, this course takes a comparative approach as we explore the evolution ad diversity of some of life’s major taxa.

Major Topics of Study Include:

• How evolution works
• How we study evolution
• The diversity of life on earth