Evolutionary Biology

Biology 332: Evolutionary Biology

George Diggs & Loriann Garcia
Department of Biology and Center for Environmental Studies
Austin College, Sherman, Texas

Biology 332 - Evolutionary Biology Spring 2017 - Class Schedule and Readings

		Lecture Topic	Partial Reading List (additional reading list will be handed out or assigned in class; many readings are on Moodle)

Jan	31	Introduction; Science as a Way of Knowing; Why Study Biol. Evol.?; Hist. & Dev. of Evolution	Naturalism ; Nothing makes sense....; The Nature of Science
Feb	2	Hist. & Dev. of Evol. Biol. (cont.).; Genetics & Evol.	The Power of This View of Life (class handout); Neither Intelligent nor Designed ; The New Creationism; Sadly, An Honest Creationist; Introduction to "Origin of Species", Was Darwin Wrong?; Darwin's First Clues
	7	Genetics & Epigenetics
	9	Selection, Adaptation
	14	Selection, Adaptation (cont.); Case Study: Evolution of Whales	Introduction to the Cetacea, Whale and Hippo "Close Cousins", New Fossils Resolve Whale's Origin , Evidence of feet in Whales (Go through JSTOR on AC Library Webpage); Origin of Whales from Early Artiodactyls; Earliest Whales Gave Birth on Land
	16	Preadaptations, Functional Shifts, Multiple Solutions
	21	Sexual Selection
	23	Evolution of Human Sexuality	Why is the penis shaped like that?; Pas de Deux of Sexuality Is Written in the Genes; What were the real reasons behind David Reimer's suicide?
	28	Speciation; Biogeography
Mar	2	EXAM 1
	7	Evolution & Human Health	Begin reading the Hunter-Gatherer Within
	9	Evolution & Human Health; Res. Sum. Title, Etc. Due	Old Friends (1 page book review); The Old Friends Hypothesis: Are We Too Clean For Our Own Good?; Microbial ‘old friends’, immunoregulation and socioeconomic status; Increase in allergies is not from being too clean, just losing touch with 'old friends';The “Old Friends” hypothesis: Reopening a can of worms; Opinion: A Mother’s Microbes
	13 -17	Spring Break
	21	Evolution & Human Health
	23	Evolution & Human Health
	28	Coevolution
	30	Coevolution	Beetle Larvae That Cooperate To Mimic Bees
Apr	4	Coevolution; RESEARCH SUMM. DUE
	6	Coevolution
	11	EXAM 2
	13	Classification; Molecular Evolution
	18	Molecular Evolution (continued)	The Real Life of Pseudogenes (download pdf), Tuatara, the Fastest Evolving Animal, This Week's Citation Classic
	20	Diversity
	25	Diversity (continued)
	27	Extinction
May	2	Mass Extinction
	4	Human Evolution	Fossil Skull Offers New Clues on Human Journey
	11	FINAL EXAM – 9:00 - 11:00 am Thursday

For further information about this course, please contact:

Dr. George Diggs, Professor
Department of Biology
Austin College
900 N. Grand Ave.
Sherman, TX 75090
903-813-2246
Fax: 903-813-3199
gdiggs@austincollege.edu