Evolution and Phylogenies (Zen 362)

Evolution is hypothesis-driven field of study that requires you to have an open mind, engage honestly with the material and form a personal opinion that you can defend scientifically, whilst acknowledging alternative explanations. In this module you will be introduced to micro- and macro-evolutionary processes and patterns (from population level, to clines, subspecies and species) that underpin population genetics, phylogenetics and taxonomy. As molecular data are often crucial to unravelling patterns and processes, there is a strong molecular biology focus in this module and prior molecular biology knowledge gained in MLB 111 and cladistics principles mastered in ZEN 261 are assume to be in place. Your lecturers are Prof Maria Sagot (Lecturer; Macroevolution/Molecular Phylogenetics theme), Prof. Catherine Sole (Module coordinator and lecturer; Microevolution/Population Genetics theme) and Dr Grant Hall (Module coordinator and lecturer; Hominid Evolution theme).