2018/2019

2019/2020

DM270

BIO/05 (ZOOLOGY)

DEPARTMENT OF BIOLOGY AND BIOTECHNOLOGY "LAZZARO SPALLANZANI"

EXPERIMENTAL AND APPLIED BIOLOGY

Biologia ambientale e biodiversità

2°

2nd semester (01/03/2020 - 14/06/2020)

9

72 lesson hours

Italian

ORAL TEST

GALEOTTI PAOLO (titolare) - 6 ECTS
GOMULSKI LUDVIK MARCUS - 3 ECTS

General Zoology Course

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Part 1. Origins and development of evolutionary thought. The evolutionism of Lamarck and Cuvier's catastrophism. The thought of Darwin and Wallace: the theory of natural selection. The discovery of the mechanisms of heredity. The "modern synthesis." Evidence of evolution: paleontology, embryology, morphology, biogeography, genetics. The deterministic and stochastic evolutionary forces. The different forms of selection. Adaptation and criticism of the adaptationist paradigm. The concepts of biological species. Models of speciation. Micro-and macroevolution. The modern theory of evolution: the neutral theory of evolution; the theory of punctuated equilibrium; the sociobiology; epigenesis and the neo-Lamarckism; symbiogenesis. Antievolutionary thought: Creationism and Intelligent Design. Evolution of man: genetic and paleontological data. Evolution of the human brain. Language and gestures. Human sexual behavior. Violence and War. Gods and Religions. Art, Music and Dance.
Part 2. Molecular evolution: natural selection and random drift; the neutral and nearly neutral theories; evolutionary rates and functional constraints; dN/dS as evidence of selection; preferential use of synonymous codons. The reconstruction of phylogeny: cladistic techniques; inferring the polarity of character states; inferring phylogenies from molecular sequences, parsimony, maximum likelihood, Bayesian; rooting trees. Co-evolution: coevolution of plants-insects and host-parasites; evolution of parasite virulence; arms races. Evo-Devo.

Lessons and seminars

Parte 1: L'Evoluzione. Douglas J. Futuyma. Zanichelli.

Parte 2: Ridley M., Evoluzione: La storia della vita e i suoi meccanismi. McGraw Hill, 2006.

Part 1: Oral

Part 2: Written

Part 1: Oral

Part 2: Written