BIO2022 - Evolution & Systematics

• Unit information
• General Unit Information & Objectives
• Specific Unit Information

General Unit Information

Life on Earth has a three and a half billion year history, during which it has changed, diversified, suffered mass extinctions, and rebounded with astonishing new forms.

In this subject we examine the patterns and causes behind this history. Darwin's theories of natural selection and sexual selection form the starting point.

From there we look at the Earth's biodiversity, ask how life started in the first place, consider the evidence for a comet impact that wiped out the dinosaurs, ask why there are only two sexes and not more, and examine how diseases evolve to exploit their hosts, among many topics.  

An evolutionary perspective helps to make sense of all other areas of biology. This subject provides a useful foundation for students interested in botany and zoology, genetics, environmental biology, psychology, and medical fields.

Objectives

From this subject you should learn the historical development of evolutionary theory, the evidence for evolution, and the fundamental processes of evolution.  Students should also be familiar with the major events in the history of life on earth (for example, its origin from chemical precursors, evolution of eukaryotes and of multicellularity, and the major extinctions that have occurred).  Finally, we will study the principles of classifying organic diversity and the techniques for inferring the evolutionary relationships of organisms. You should be able to use modern computer aided methods to infer phylogenetic relationships of species.

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Specific Unit Information

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