Thorsten Lumbsch

Within an over 3.5 billion-year history of biological life on Earth, an extraordinary diversity of life forms evolved. Since the formulation of the evolutionary theory by Charles Darwin, biologists have used different data to understand how the diversity of organisms evolved. We will discuss the data that are being used to trace the evolution of organisms, from morphology, anatomy, ultrastructure, development, chemistry, to genetics, and now even the entire genome of organisms. Using examples, we will explore how these characters have shaped our understanding of evolution and how breakthroughs by new techniques or discoveries have resulted in paradigm shifts. We will discuss the major lineages of the tree of life, focusing on major shifts in biological diversity and mass extinctions. This will be achieved by a mixture of lectures, group discussions, and reading of review texts in this class, with an emphasis on the impact that discoveries have had beyond evolutionary biology. Coursework includes lectures, discussions, and readings (journal articles, book chapters). For each of the readings, students are required to submit summaries. There will be required a field trip to the Field Museum.