BIOL 3433

This course in an overview of the history of life since its beginnings nearly 4 billion years ago and up to the appearance of modern humans in the Pleistocene. Lectures will review major milestones in life history, including the requirements for and the origins of life, the early diversification of animals, the chronology of major evolutionary advances, mass extinctions and their legacies, and the influence of geophysical phenomena on life.