Postgraduate Course: Human Evolution (PGHC11080)
Course Outline
| School | School of History, Classics and Archaeology |
College | College of Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences |
| Credit level (Normal year taken) | SCQF Level 11 (Postgraduate) |
Availability | Available to all students |
| SCQF Credits | 20 |
ECTS Credits | 10 |
| Summary | The course provides an overview of human biological and cultural evolution from the first hominins to the emergence of our own species, Homo sapiens, using evidence provided by archaeology, molecular biology, and biological and social anthropology. |
| Course description |
The aim of the course is to provide students with a greater awareness of where we came from, and how we have developed physically and culturally over the past seven million years. Topics covered include: how scientists study human evolution; climate change and evolution; primate origins; the earliest hominins and the origins of bipedalism; evolution of the brain, intelligence and language; reconstructing diet and behaviour; the origin and global expansion of modern humans.
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Entry Requirements (not applicable to Visiting Students)
| Pre-requisites |
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Co-requisites | |
| Prohibited Combinations | Students MUST NOT also be taking
Human Origins (ARCA10003)
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Other requirements | None |
Information for Visiting Students
| Pre-requisites | None |
| High Demand Course? |
Yes |
Course Delivery Information
| Not being delivered |
Learning Outcomes
On completion of this course, the student will be able to:
- show command of core concepts in human evolution
- show an in depth understanding of hominin skeletal morphology
- demonstrate an ability to read, analyse and reflect critically upon relevant scholarship on human origins
- demonstrate an ability to sustain scholarly arguments in written form, by formulating appropriate questions and utilising relevant evidence
- demonstrate independence of mind and initiative, and intellectual integrity and maturity
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Reading List
Arsuaga, J.L. and Martinez, I. 2006. The Chosen Species: The Long March of Human Evolution. Oxford: Blackwell.
Cartmill, M. & Smith, F.H. 2009. The Human Lineage. Hoboken, Wiley-Blackwell.
Dinnis, R. & Stringer, C. 2014. Britain: one million years of the human story. London, Natural History Museum
Harris, E.E. 2015. Ancestors in our Genome. Oxford, Oxford University Press.
Jobling, M.A., Hurles, M. and Tyler-Smith, C. 2004. Human Evolutionary Genetics: Origins, Peoples and Disease. New York: Garland.
Stringer, C. 2012. The Origin of Our Species. Harmondsworth, Penguin. |
Additional Information
| Graduate Attributes and Skills |
Not entered |
| Special Arrangements |
Jointly taught with Human Origins (ARCA10003) |
| Keywords | Human Evolution |
Contacts
| Course organiser | Dr Catriona Pickard
Tel: (0131 6)50 2372
Email: |
Course secretary | Miss Danielle Jeffery
Tel: (0131 6)50 7128
Email: |
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