BSc Biology with Industrial/Professional Experience

Tuition fees are considerably lower for your placement year. Please see the fees page for full details.

Additional expenses could include UK or foreign field trips. These are subsidised by the University but you still need to contribute to the cost of the field course if you choose to go. Costs vary depending on the destination. Free, UK-based field trip options are available. For more information, visit the course unit page.

Students participating in placements outside the UK may be able to apply for funding from the UK's Turing scheme depending on eligibility. Priority will be given to students from low income households.

Through a combination of lectures and practical classes, the unit will explore the evolution of humans and study particular morphological and behavioural adaptations through comparative anatomy of the skeleton. Considerations into the environmental background of human evolution and the dispersals of ancestral human species will be included, along with studies of cognitive evolution and the formation of primate and human societies. Although largely focussed on primate skeletal morphology, this unit will also include components relating to material culture as well as the latest developments in genetics and proteomics that inform our understanding of human evolution and the origins of modern human populations.

 

On the successful completion of the course, students will be able to:		Developed	Assessed
ILO 1	Identify key differences between human skeletons and those of our primative relatives	X	X
ILO 2	Explain what information is used to identify and describe distinct hominin species	X	X
ILO 3	Identify the principles of evolutionary adaptation and explain their role in human evolution	X	X
ILO 4	Be able to discuss how modern technologies have revolutionised our understanding of human evolution	X	X
ILO 5	Describe the key lines of evidence for the evolution of human cognitive capacity	X	X
ILO 6	Discuss the impact that human evolution has had on other animal species	X	X

 

Topics:

Lecture material includes the fossil record and dating methods, primate fossils, primate evolution and locomotion, hominin evolution, encephalisation, skeletal variation between the sexes, genetics, skeletal variation with ageing, primate behaviour, tools, culture and human impacts on the environment, palaeoclimates, dispersals and language.

 

Laboratory practical classes will largely focus on skeletal anatomy, ranging from studying primate crania, stature and locomotion, australopithecine crania and encephalisation, sexing and ageing, as well as learning about lithic cultures.

 

 

Assessment type	% Weighting within unit	Hand out and hand in dates	Length	How, when and what feedback is provided	ILO tested
Exam	50		2		3, 4, 5 & 6
Lab practicals (report)	50	One week after each lab	2	Optional self-tests via blackboard, along with written feedback given during special session at end of semester 2	1, 2, 5

 

Gibson, K.R., Gibson, K.R. and Ingold, T. eds., 1993. Tools, language and cognition in human evolution. Cambridge University Press.

 

King, G.E., 2015. Primate Behavior and Human Origins. Routledge.

 

McKee, J.K., Poirier, F.E. and Mcgraw, W.S., 2015. Understanding human evolution. Routledge.

 

Sahle, Y., Reyes-Centeno, H. and Bentz, C. eds., 2019. Modern Human Origins and Dispersal. Kerns Verlag.

 

Scarre, C., 2005. The human past: world prehistory and the development of human societies. Thames & Hudson.