Mechanisms of evolution II 1400-218ME2

The aim of the lecture is to introduce the mechanisms of evolution active on organismal and supra-organismal level, and it will concern the following specific issues:
• natural selection, the levels (units) of selection, selfish gene, extended phenotype
• speciation and its types (alopatric, sympatric, etc.), species extinction.
• evolution of biological diversity, macroevolution
• evolutionary game theory, the concept of evolutionary stable strategy
• evolution of sex, Muller's ratchet, Red Quinn hypothesis and other explanations
• sexual selection
• evolution of intraspecific interactions, altruism, kin selection, social behaviour
• evolution of life-strategies, evolution of senescence
• evolution of interspecific interactions, antagonism, mutualism, coevolution
• human's evolutionary heritage: anthropogenesis, cultural evolution, evolutionary psychology, Darwinian medicine