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Vertebrate Evolution Bi/CNS 158 |
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Fridays 2-4 pm, Broad 200
NOTE: On May 9 class will be held in 100 Broad.
Professor: John Allman (cebus@caltech.edu)
Teaching Assistants: Cindy Chiu (cnchiu@caltech.edu) and Oliver Loson (loson@caltech.edu)
Textbooks: The Book of Life by Stephen Jay Gould, available at Amazon, and Evolving Brains by John Allman
Grading: There will be a midterm (40%) and a final examination (60%).
Class Homepage: http://allmanlab.caltech.edu/biCNS158.html
April 4: Organizational Meeting
April 11: Early Life up to the Cambrian Explosion Download lecture slides
Allman, Evolving Brains, Chapters 1 and 3
The Book of Life, pp. 3-63
April 18: Fish, Amphibia and Reptiles Download lecture slides
Allman, Evolving Brains, Chapter 4
The Book of Life, pp. 65-167
Fernald, R. D., Casting a genetic light on the evolution of eyes, Science, 313:1914-1918
April 25: Mammals and Birds Download lecture slides
Allman, Evolving Brains, Chapter 5
The Book of Life, pp. 169-217
Midterm exam will be e-mailed to you on April 25 and will be due on May 1. Midterms should be sent to Cindy Chiu (cnchiu@caltech.edu).
May 2: Primate Evolution Download lecture slides
Allman, Evolving Brains, Chapter 6
May 9: Evolution of Life Histories: Brains, Energy and Time (NOTE: class in 100 Broad) Download lecture slides
Allman, Evolving Brains, Chapter 7
Aiello, L. C., and Wheeler, P., The expensive tissue hypothesis, Current Anthropology, 36:199-221
Allman, J. M., and Hasenstaub, A., Caretaking, risk-seeking and survival in anthropoid primates, Research and Perspectives in Longevity; Sex and Longevity: Sexuality, Gender, Reproduction, Parenthood. Robine, Kirkwood and Allard (Eds.). Springer, 75-89 (2000)
Schradin, C., and Anzenberger, G., Prolactin, the hormone of paternity, News in Physiological Sciences, 14:223-230 (1999)
Brown, S. (2008) Top billing for platypus at end of evolution tree. Nature, 453:138-139.
Warren, W. C. et al. (2008) Genome analysis of the platypus reveals unique signatures of evolution. Nature, 453:175-183.
May 16: Evolution of Hominids
The Book of Life, pp. 219-251
Gilad, Y., Wiebe, V., Przeworski, M., Lancet, D., and Pääbo, S., Loss of olfactory receptor genes coincides with the acquisition of full trichromatic vision in primates, PLoS Biology, 2:120-125 (2004)
Mombaerts, P., The human repertoire of odorant receptor genes and pseudogenes, Annual Review Genomics Hum Genetics, 2:493-510 (2001)
Tattersall, I., Paleoanthropology: The last half-century, Evolutionary Anthropology, 9:2-16 (2000)
Allman, J. M., Hakeem, A., and Watson, K., Two phylogenetic specializations in the human brain, Neuroscientist, 8:335-345 (2002).
May 23: Ongoing Evolution Download lecture slides
Voght, B. F., Kudaravalli, S., Wen, X., and Pritchard, J. K., A map of recent positive selection in the human genome, PLoS Biology, 4:446-458 (2006)
Bush, E. C., and Lahn, B. T. Selective constraint on noncoding regions of hominid genomes, PLoS Computational Biology, 1:593-598 (2005)
Choi, S. S., Bush, E. C., and Lahn, B. T. Different classes of tissue-specific genes show different levels of noncoding conservation, Genomics, 87:433-436 (2006)
May 30: Human Evolution During the Last 100,000 Years Download lecture slides
Final Exam will be emailed to you on May 30 and must be returned to Cindy Chiu (cnchiu@caltech.edu) no later than Wednesday, June 4 for seniors and grad students. Finals for everybody else must be returned no later than Wednesday, June 11.