Evolution
Biology
314
Herman
Eure
Charles Bonnet, a French embryologist,
coined the term evolution to explain his embryological theory called Preformation or Emboitement.
His idea was that there was, in each embryo, an encapsulated miniature adult,
and production of the mature adult form was accomplished by a series of
developmental unfoldings. Evolution (e = out + volutio = turning or folding) thus was an unfolding or
turning out of this miniature adult to create the mature form. Today we know
that there is no miniature adult encapsulated in a developing embryo.
However, what we do know is that each zygote carries within it a genetic map
that  controls
its development from conception/fertilization to the production of the adult
forms. Populations of these organisms carry this same map but may express it
differently in a given environment. Evolution is the process of genetic
change in this map through time. The mechanism that allows for the creation
of new and different "types" from an "old standard" is
natural selection. This course is designed to study the development of
evolutionary thought beginning with the Greek Philosopher, Thales, who lived some 2000 years before Charles Darwin
to Charles Darwin and finally to today’s molecular geneticists. This course
looks at the history of evolutionary thought including the study of those
individuals whose ideas contributed to Darwin’s synthetic theory of evolution. Aspects of
historical geology, including those principles and processes that were
instrumental in both Charles Darwin’s and Alfred Russel
Wallace's independent discovery of the process of genetic change in populations,
are explored. Mechanisms of evolution, including changes in gene frequencies,
selection and adaptation, speciation, variability, geographical variation and
isolation, polymorphism, structural and interaction of populations, and
molecular genetics are discussed. Mechanisms that preserve variability
including an analysis of the Hardy-Weinberg equilibrium are explored. Finally
the course looks at evolutionary lineages, phylogenies, extinction and causes
of extinction. The course has one lab class meeting where students can look
at fossils to augment the information that they have been discussing in
class. The class is taught each fall and is open to sophomores, juniors and
seniors.
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