This course is an introduction to the evolution of human physiology and human behavior, the relationship between hominid and non-hominid primates, and the study of relationships between a population of humans and their biophysical environment.
This course deals with scientific questions of human origins and evolution using the available evidence for our own ancestry over the past 6 million years. We will begin with an overview of theories and techniques such as evolutionary theory, paleontology, paleoenvironmental reconstruction, phylogenetic analysis, genetics, and functional morphology. We will critically examine what key debates have taken place over the last century of exploration and discovery in human evolutionary research, learning how unconventional thinking and spectacular discoveries have shaped current knowledge of our origins.