Principles of Evolution, Ecology and Behavior with Professor Stephen C. Stearns

This course presents the principles of evolution, ecology, and behavior for students beginning their study of biology and of the environment. It discusses major ideas and results in a manner accessible to all Yale College undergraduates. Recent advances have energized these fields with results that have implications well beyond their boundaries: ideas, mechanisms, and processes that should form part of the toolkit of all biologists and educated citizens.

  1. The Nature of Evolution: Selection, Inheritance, and History

  2. Basic Transmission Genetics

  3. Adaptive Evolution: Natural Selection

  4. Neutral Evolution: Genetic Drift

  5. How Selection Changes the Genetic Composition of Population

  6. The Origin and Maintenance of Genetic Variation

  7. The Importance of Development in Evolution

  8. The Expression of Variation: Reaction Norms

  9. The Evolution of Sex

  10. Genomic Conflict

  11. Life History Evolution

  12. Sex Allocation

  13. Sexual Selection

  14. Species and Speciation

  15. Phylogeny and Systematics

  16. Comparative Methods: Trees, Maps, and Traits

  17. Key Events in Evolution

  18. Major Events in the Geological Theatre

  19. The Fossil Record and Life's History

  20. Coevolution

  21. Evolutionary Medicine

  22. The Impact of Evolutionary Thought on the Social Sciences

  23. The Logic of Science

  24. Climate and the Distribution of Life on Earth

  25. Interactions with the Physical Environment

  26. Population Growth: Density Effects

  27. Interspecific Competition

  28. Ecological Communities

  29. Island Biogeography and Invasive Species

  30. Energy and Matter in Ecosystems

  31. Why So Many Species? The Factors Affecting Biodiversity

  32. Economic Decisions for the Foraging Individual

  33. Evolutionary Game Theory: Fighting and Contests

  34. Mating Systems and Parental Care

  35. Alternative Breeding Strategies

  36. Selfishness and Altruism