This course presents the principles of evolution, ecology, and behavior for students beginning their study of biology and of the environment.
It discusses major ideas and results in a manner accessible to all Yale College undergraduates. Recent advances have energized these fields with results that have implications well beyond their boundaries: ideas, mechanisms, and processes that should form part of the toolkit of all biologists and educated citizens.
- The Nature of Evolution: Selection, Inheritance, and History
- Basic Transmission Genetics
- Adaptive Evolution: Natural Selection
- Neutral Evolution: Genetic Drift
- How Selection Changes the Genetic Composition of Population
- The Origin and Maintenance of Genetic Variation
- The Importance of Development in Evolution
- The Expression of Variation: Reaction Norms
- The Evolution of Sex
- Genomic Conflict
- Life History Evolution
- Sex Allocation
- Sexual Selection
- Species and Speciation
- Phylogeny and Systematics
- Comparative Methods: Trees, Maps, and Traits
- Key Events in Evolution
- Major Events in the Geological Theatre
- The Fossil Record and Life’s History
- Coevolution
- Evolutionary Medicine
- The Impact of Evolutionary Thought on the Social Sciences
- The Logic of Science
- Climate and the Distribution of Life on Earth
- Interactions with the Physical Environment
- Population Growth: Density Effects
- Interspecific Competition
- Ecological Communities
- Island Biogeography and Invasive Species
- Energy and Matter in Ecosystems
- Why So Many Species? The Factors Affecting Biodiversity
- Economic Decisions for the Foraging Individual
- Evolutionary Game Theory: Fighting and Contests
- Mating Systems and Parental Care
- Alternative Breeding Strategies
- Selfishness and Altruism
Requirements: None
Instructor: Stephen C. Stearns
Price: Free