Topics 

  1. Emergence of evolutionary thoughts
    1. Lamarck
    2. Darwin–concepts of variation, adaptation, struggle, fitness and natural selection
    3. Mendelism
    4. Spontaneity of mutations
    5. The evolutionary synthesis
  2. Origin of cells and unicellular evolution
    1. Origin of basic biological molecules
    2. Abiotic synthesis of organic monomers and polymers
    3. Concept of Oparin and Haldane
    4. Experiment of Miller (1953)
    5. The first cell
    6. Evolution of prokaryotes
    7. Origin of eukaryotic cells
    8. Evolution of unicellular eukaryotes
    9. Anaerobic metabolism, photosynthesis and aerobic metabolism.
  3. Paleontology and evolutionary history
    1. The evolutionary time scale
    2. Eras, periods and epoch
    3. Major events in the evolutionary time scale
    4. Origins of unicellular and multicellular organisms
    5. Major groups of plants and animals
    6. Stages in primate evolution including Homo
  4. Molecular Evolution
    1. Concepts of neutral evolution, molecular divergence and molecular clocks
    2. Molecular tools in phylogeny, classification and identification
    3. Protein and nucleotide sequence analysis
    4. Origin of new genes and proteins
    5. Gene duplication and divergence
  5. The Mechanisms
    1. Population genetics – populations, gene pool, gene frequency
    2. Hardy-Weinberg law
    3. Concepts and rate of change in gene frequency through
      1. Natural selection
      2. Migration
      3. Random genetic drift
    4. Adaptive radiation and modifications
    5. Isolating mechanisms
    6. Speciation
    7. Allopatricity and sympatricity
    8. Convergent evolution
    9. Sexual selection
    10. Co-evolution
  6. Brain, Behavior and Evolution
    1. Approaches and methods in study of behaviour
    2. Proximate and ultimate causation
    3. Altruism and evolution-group selection, kin selection, reciprocal altruism
    4. Neural basis of learning, memory, cognition, sleep and arousal
    5. Biological clocks
    6. Development of behaviour
    7. Social communication
    8. Social dominance
    9. Use of space and territoriality
    10. Mating systems, parental investment and reproductive success
    11. Parental care
    12. Aggressive behaviour
    13. Habitat selection and optimality in foraging
    14. Migration, orientation and navigation
    15. Domestication and behavioral changes