Course Overview

This course looks at the major transitions during vertebrate evolution, particularly focussing on the transition between water and land, and the adaptations which facilitated that transition. The diversification of animal life on land, and the subsequent return of some groups to water will be studied. This course will have a strong evolutionary biology focus.

Learning Achievement

This course outlines the key events and processes driving the evolution of members of the Phylum Chordata over the last 500 million years

Competence

Students will have two main activities: 1) creation of an evolutionary timeline, which outlines the key abiotic and biotic factors driving the evolution of vertebrates, 2) submission of short reports (max. 1-side A4 paper in English) for each section

Course prerequisites

Basic knowledge of biological taxonomy and evolution is helpful

Grading Philosophy

Evolutionary timeline - 40% of final grade
Short reports - 60% of final grade
Quality of written English will not negatively affect scores

Course schedule

Ancient Earth - setting the scene for the evolution of vertebrates
Early fish evolution
Evolution of sharks and modern fish
Coelocanths and the invasion of land
The age of amphibians
Synapsids
Early diapsids
The age of dinosaurs
The evolution of birds
Diversification of mammals

Course type

Lectures

Online Course Requirement

Instructor

Irving Louis John

Other information

Students will be provided the lecture material as videos. I expect you to watch those and submit the reports before class.
Videos available in MS Teams group, linked in Manaba

Site for Inquiry

Link to the syllabus provided by the university