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Dr. Russell Greaves Harvard Extension School Department of Human Evolutionary Biology Harvard University, Cambridge, MA Wednesdays 5:30-7:30 pm phone: 617-628-0315 (home) 617-495-2288 (office) email: rgreaves@fas.harvard.edu rustygreaves@yahoo.com Text: The following text is required: Boyd, Robert and Joan B. Silk 2009 How Humans Evolved, 5th edition. W. W. Norton & Co., New York. Additional required readings, recommended, or supplemental materials will be placed on reserve at Grossman Library or on the course iSite. Course Overview: This course examines the fossil, genetic, and archaeological record of human evolution, providing a comprehensive survey of our biological and behavioral changes from early australopithecines to the emergence of modern humans. In order to understand the unique aspects of human success, there is a rich comparative field of work across several disciplines within human evolutionary biology that looks at how evolution has shaped our particular physical and mental capabilities. Important topics to be covered include hominin interactions with changing environments, bipedality, increased brain size, tool use, social behavior, mating, language, other physical and behavioral adaptations, and the geographic expansions of hominins out of Africa. The course provides a fundamental understanding of evolutionary theory and its relevance for studying the human past. The course briefly addresses the earlier developments in primate evolution before the appearance of lineages potentially ancestral to humans. The majority of the course examines the emergence, biological changes, and adaptations of the australopithecines and the genus Homo over the last 4 million years. Human evolution not only addresses where our species came from in the past. It helps us understand how evolution has shaped the organisms we are now, negotiating rapid environmental, dietary, health, and behavioral changes that are novel challenges to the conditions our bodies and brains developed to confront.
Wednesday May 11, 5:30-7:30 pm Final Exam research paper due by the beginning of class
Class Requirements and Grading Grading: Your grade will be based on two exams, one short research paper, and class participation. Exam 1 is a takehome mid-term. Exam 2 will be administered as the final exam. Each exam will be worth 25% of your final grade. The research paper will be worth 30% of your final grade. The two fossil laboratories will each include one short inclass assignment that you will complete while examining the fossil casts. Each in-class laboratory exercise will be worth 10% of your final grade. If you have a legitimate reason for missing an examination you must contact me prior to the exam dates to determine an appropriate alternative. If it is necessary to curve the grade distribution this will be done at the end of the course after all of the exams have been taken. Your final grade will never be lowered by curving the grade distribution. Exams: Examinations will be based on assigned readings and material presented during classes. The exams will primarily cover materials from each section of the course, but you are expected to retain concepts learned earlier. The take home mid-term examinations will require a couple focused exercises to construct short, synthetic answers to important questions about how we study hominin evolution. The final examination will be a combined format (short identifications, fill in the blank) and a choice of one of two essay questions will evaluate your understanding of synthetic topics, concepts, and relationships about important issues in human evolution based on readings and class presentations. Fossil Cast Laboratories There are two scheduled laboratories where you will have the opportunity to examine casts of actual hominin fossils. These are high quality, research cast reproductions of the original fossils and are to be treated with the utmost care. The laboratories will take place during scheduled class meetings. Because of the logistical arrangements needed to make these materials available, you MUST attend each of these laboratories. There will not be make-up laboratories. During the laboratories, you will examine a series of casts to be able to clearly identify characteristics relevant to understanding differences in groups of fossil homins. You are required to adhere to careful examination protocols to assure that no fossil casts are damaged. A short written assignment will accompany each laboratory where you will answer pertinent questions about fossil morphology based on examination of several documented fossils and one or two unidentified specimens.