EEB461 Macroevolution Fall 2010
This course is offered in Fall 2010. It will be offered in the future as EEB464.
Syllabus PDF
Lectures
You can adopt these for your own work, with attribution. Note that I have attempted to use only images licensed under such terms myself, but you should take care, especially with images from papers or embedded videos. I have attributed all the media used (with some exceptions for public domain items), and I think this is fair use for education, but I am not a lawyer.
Files are generally available in Apple Keynote format, as PDFs, and as QuickTime movies. These files can be large: in the case of some of the movie versions, up to 500 MB in size. In the movies, you will need to click to advance from slide to slide.
All the lectures are now available in one PDF file. There are 663 slides and the file is 184 MB. Note that movies used in the actual slides do not run in the PDF. To see the movies, too, look at the original Keynote file (warning: 1.58 GB) or the small (256 x 192 pixel resolution, 105 MB) or medium (512 x 384 pixel resolution, 309 MB) QuickTime movies.
This class was taught with a mixture of lecture, class discussions, readings, white board scribblings, and interactive programs, generally written de novo for the course. The slides alone thus do not contain all the information the students learned (or at least were exposed to).
Also, please do not forget the anonymous feedback form.
| Date | Topic | Big question | Taxon to have learned | Assignment | Lecture | Other materials |
| W 08/18 | Pre-test, syllabus | - | ||||
| F 08/20 | History of planet & life | What is the history of life? | Crinoid | .key .mov |
.R script for making timelines Timing.txt input for script (with student names anonymized) |
|
| M 08/23 | History of planet & life | What is the history of life? | Archaea | .key .mov |
||
| W 08/25 | Evidence | What is the history of life? | Bdelloid rotifers | .key .mov |
Made inferences about animals and interactions using "fossils" [leaves from around my house] | |
| F 08/27 | Taphonomy | What is the history of life? | Trilobite | .key .mov |
||
| M 08/30 | Jargon | Acromyrmex | .key .mov |
|||
| W 09/01 | Phylogenetics | What is the history of life? | Ammonite | .key .mov |
||
| F 09/03 | Empirical distributions | What is the history of life? What explains trait frequencies? |
Ichthyornis dispar | .key .mov |
||
| M 09/06 | Labor day | |||||
| W 09/08 | McClung field trip | What is the history of life? What explains trait frequencies? |
McClung foyer | |||
| F 09/10 | Biogeography | What is the history of life? | Brachiopod | .key .mov |
||
| M 09/13 | Speciation | Why are some groups more speciose than others? | Wolbachia | .key .mov |
In class derivation of Dobzhansky-Muller incompatibility idea | |
| W 09/15 | Speciation | Why are some groups more speciose than others? | Anomalocaris | .key .mov |
||
| F 09/17 | Speciation | Why are some groups more speciose than others? | Gasterosteus aculeatus | .key .mov |
||
| M 09/20 | Extinction | Why are some groups more speciose than others? | Geospizinae | .key .mov |
||
| W 09/22 | Extinction | Why are some groups more speciose than others? | Dionaea muscipula | |||
| F 09/24 | Extinction | Why are some groups more speciose than others? | Tribolium | .key .mov |
||
| M 09/27 | Diversification | Why are some groups more speciose than others? | bonobo | .key .mov |
||
| W 09/29 | Diversification | Why are some groups more speciose than others? | Lichen | .key .mov |
||
| F 10/01 | Diversification | Why are some groups more speciose than others? | Fig wasp | |||
| M 10/04 | BISSE | Why are some groups more speciose than others? What explains trait frequencies? |
Anolis | .key .mov |
||
| W 10/06 | Natural selection & drift | What explains trait frequencies? What sets the rate of phenotypic evolution? |
Tunicates | .key .mov |
||
| F 10/08 | Fall break | |||||
| M 10/11 | Sex | What explains trait frequencies? What sets the rate of phenotypic evolution? |
Spiny anteater | Midterm distributed | .key .mov |
|
| W 10/13 | Trends | What explains trait frequencies? What sets the rate of phenotypic evolution? |
Eubacteria | .key .mov |
||
| F 10/15 | Trends | What explains trait frequencies? What sets the rate of phenotypic evolution? |
Maiasaura | |||
| M 10/18 | Trends | What explains trait frequencies? What sets the rate of phenotypic evolution? |
Isopod | Midterm due at 8 pm | ||
| W 10/20 | Escalation | What explains trait frequencies? What sets the rate of phenotypic evolution? |
Riftia pachyptila | |||
| F 10/22 | Correlated traits | What explains trait frequencies? What sets the rate of phenotypic evolution? |
||||
| M 10/25 | Correlated traits | What explains trait frequencies? What sets the rate of phenotypic evolution? |
Thermus aquaticus | |||
| W 10/27 | Many to one mapping | What explains trait frequencies? What sets the rate of phenotypic evolution? |
Lycophytes | |||
| F 10/29 | Contingency | All | Strepsiptera | |||
| M 11/01 | EvoDevo | What explains trait frequencies? What sets the rate of phenotypic evolution? |
Diatom | Paper due at 8 pm | ||
| W 11/03 | Systematics | Basic | Dimetrodon | |||
| F 11/05 | Coevolution | What explains trait frequencies? Why are some groups more speciose than others? |
Buchnera | |||
| M 11/08 | Symbiosis | What explains trait frequencies? Why are some groups more speciose than others? |
Welwitschia | |||
| W 11/10 | Origin of life & astrobiology | What is the history of life? | Ginkgo | |||
| F 11/12 | Free topic 1 | silversword | ||||
| M 11/15 | Free topic 2 | orca | ||||
| W 11/17 | Free topic 3 | Cordyceps | ||||
| F 11/19 | Presentations | Presentation | ||||
| M 11/22 | Presentations | Presentation | ||||
| W 11/24 | Presentations | Presentation | ||||
| F 11/26 | Thanksgiving break | |||||
| M 11/29 | Review |