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2023/2024

Human Origins

Code: 100749 ECTS Credits: 3
Degree Type Year Semester
2500250 Biology OT 4 1
2504235 Science, Technology and Humanities OT 4 1

Contact

Name:
Xavier Jordana Comin
Email:
xavier.jordana@uab.cat

Teaching groups languages

You can check it through this link. To consult the language you will need to enter the CODE of the subject. Please note that this information is provisional until 30 November 2023.


Prerequisites

There are no prerequisites to follow the course successfully


Objectives and Contextualisation

The main objective of the subject of human origins is to understand current human groups based on their evolution over time.

The study of the evolution of man is made from an integrative perspective of various disciplines. The entire process can not be understood without understanding the periodization and therefore the dating methods for each moment; The changes can not be understood without understanding the evolution of the Earth and how it limits the environment, as climate changes modify ecosystems; tool manufacturing and brain development ...

In this whole, we can understand the evolution from the first primates to the variability of the current man.

Throughout this process, we can understand the evolution of diseases and their distribution in the biosphere.

And the molecular study of the different hominins will capture the variability of the current man.


Competences

    Biology
  • Act with ethical responsibility and respect for fundamental rights and duties, diversity and democratic values.
  • Analyse and interpret the origin, evolution, diversity and behaviour of living beings.
  • Assess environmental impacts.
  • Be able to analyse and synthesise
  • Be able to organise and plan.
  • Characterise, manage, conserve and restore populations, communities and ecosystems.
  • Control processes and provide services related to biology.
  • Design and carry out biodiagnoses and identify and use bioindicators.
  • Develop a historical vision of biology.
  • Isolate, identify and analyse material of biological origin.
  • Make changes to methods and processes in the area of knowledge in order to provide innovative responses to society's needs and demands.
  • Perform genetic analyses.
  • Students must be capable of applying their knowledge to their work or vocation in a professional way and they should have building arguments and problem resolution skills within their area of study.
  • Students must be capable of collecting and interpreting relevant data (usually within their area of study) in order to make statements that reflect social, scientific or ethical relevant issues.
  • Students must be capable of communicating information, ideas, problems and solutions to both specialised and non-specialised audiences.
  • Students must develop the necessary learning skills to undertake further training with a high degree of autonomy.
  • Students must have and understand knowledge of an area of study built on the basis of general secondary education, and while it relies on some advanced textbooks it also includes some aspects coming from the forefront of its field of study.
  • Take account of social, economic and environmental impacts when operating within one's own area of knowledge.
  • Take sex- or gender-based inequalities into consideration when operating within one's own area of knowledge.
    Science, Technology and Humanities
  • Produce written papers and give effective oral presentations, adopting the appropriate register in different languages.

Learning Outcomes

  1. Analyse a situation and identify its points for improvement.
  2. Analyse present and past intra-population and inter-population variability in our species.
  3. Analyse the sex- or gender-based inequalities and the gender biases present in one's own area of knowledge.
  4. Analyse the sustainability indicators of the academic and professional activities within the area, integrating the social, economic and environmental dimensions.
  5. Assess environmental impacts.
  6. Be able to analyse and synthesise.
  7. Be able to organise and plan.
  8. Critically analyse the principles, values and procedures that govern the exercise of the profession.
  9. Define the role of the primates in the identification of disease-causing agents.
  10. Develop critical thinking and reasoning and communicate ideas effectively, both in the mother tongue and in other languages.
  11. Explain the historical precedents that justify the study of the human being as a separate subject area.
  12. Explain the underlying biological causes of human social behaviour.
  13. Identify the principal natural factors that have intervened in the distribution of human populations.
  14. Interact with and advise government institutions operating in the field of social policy and population and public health policy.
  15. Interpret human variability as a source of individualisation.
  16. Interpret phylogeographic analyses of the human species.
  17. Interpret the evolutionary dimension of hominids and their evolution in space and in time.
  18. Interrelate the environmental, biological and cultural data that merge in the interpretation of human evolution.
  19. Make population genetic determinations from which to interpret the relationships between normal and pathological variability in the human species, and interpret the findings.
  20. Manipulate human samples and perform morphological, molecular and chromosome determinations for the diagnosis and prevention of diseases.
  21. Propose new methods or well-founded alternative solutions.
  22. Propose projects and actions that incorporate the gender perspective.
  23. Propose ways to evaluate projects and actions for improving sustainability.
  24. Select and classify museum samples and recover data from archives and registries.
  25. Students must be capable of applying their knowledge to their work or vocation in a professional way and they should have building arguments and problem resolution skills within their area of study.
  26. Students must be capable of collecting and interpreting relevant data (usually within their area of study) in order to make statements that reflect social, scientific or ethical relevant issues.
  27. Students must be capable of communicating information, ideas, problems and solutions to both specialised and non-specialised audiences.
  28. Students must develop the necessary learning skills to undertake further training with a high degree of autonomy.
  29. Students must have and understand knowledge of an area of study built on the basis of general secondary education, and while it relies on some advanced textbooks it also includes some aspects coming from the forefront of its field of study.
  30. Summarise and interpret the biology, evolution and behaviour of the order Primates.
  31. Work in teams.

Content

T. 1. Systematics: morphological and molecular

T. 2. Dating methods

T. 3. Reconstructing behavior

T. 4. The origin

T. 5. Miocene period

T. 6.- Colonization of the savannah

T. 7.- Routes of Asian SE

T. 8.- Homo in Asia

T. 9.- Homo in Europe

T. 10. Neandertals

T. 11. Early Homo sapiens

T. 12. Colonization  of Oceania

T. 13.  Colonization of America

T. 14. The first villagers

T. 15. Upper Pleistocene in Iberian Peninsula

 

 

 

 


Methodology

 The development of the training activities of the course is based on: theory classes, seminars and laboratory and computer practice classes, each with its specific methodology.

 These activities will be complemented by a series of tutoring sessions.

 Theory classes: Two typologies have been designed, the first merely masterful and the second aimed at a dialogue at all times open on the relevant topic.

 In the first, students acquire the scientific knowledge of the subject by attending theory classes: master classes with ICT support, which will complement the personal study of the topics presented. The audiovisual material used in class can be found by students in the "teaching material" tool of the Virtual Campus. These classes are conceived as a fundamentally unidirectional method of transmitting knowledge from teachers to students that forces them to develop autonomous learning strategies outside the classroom.

 In the second typology, days before and sufficiently in advance, the students will be provided with the necessary documentation to discuss; students must have prepared them from the material delivered by the teachers on the Virtual Campus. These students and within the subject of human biology have already had some basic notions of some topics. Within these classes students will have the opportunity to discuss and discuss in depth the latest developments in human evolution research.

 Seminars: a leading researcher will be taken to talk and discuss current issues.

 Practice classes: Students come into contact with laboratory material and techniques. The results will be discussed at the end of each practice and/or the evaluable materials will be collected. Students will be able to access the protocols and practice guides through the Virtual Campus. The knowledge acquired in theory classes and in personal study is applied to the resolution of practical cases. Students work in small groups allowing them to acquire the ability to work in groups, analysis and synthesis. It also allows you to apply statistical resources in the interpretation of data.

 Tutorials: The aim of these sessions is multiple: to resolve doubts, to carry out debates on topics that have been proposed in class, to orient on the sources consulted by the students and to explain the use of the necessary tools of the Virtual Campus for the proposed activities. These sessions will not be expository nor in them will advance matter of the temario, but will be sessions of debate and discussion. Much of the content of the tutorial sessions will be based on the work done by students independently.

 Approximately 15 minutes will be devoted to allowing your students to answer the surveys for the evaluation of the teaching performance and the evaluation of the subject or module.

Annotation: Within the schedule set by the centre or degree programme, 15 minutes of one class will be reserved for students to evaluate their lecturers and their courses or modules through questionnaires.


Activities

Title Hours ECTS Learning Outcomes
Type: Directed      
Seminars 2 0.08 2, 16, 17, 18, 6
Theory I 9 0.36 2, 12, 16, 17, 18, 6, 7
Type: Supervised      
Practices 4 0.16 2, 12, 16, 17, 18, 6, 7
Theory II 9 0.36 8, 4, 2, 3, 1, 12, 16, 17, 18, 6, 7
tutoring 1 0.04
Type: Autonomous      
Study 50 2

Assessment

As it is a continuous assessment, the participation of the students, the preparation of the seminars, the practical materials and the notes of the controls will be taken into account. To be able to attend, the student must justify having passed the biosafety and security tests that will be found in the Virtual Campus and be familiar with and accept the operating rules of the laboratories of the Faculty of Biosciences.

For the evaluation of the subject, a control will be carried out with a weight of 40% of the subject. Students who have not passed the exam will have a recovery check.

Regarding the type II theory classes, they can be evaluated by collecting a questionnaire from them or some small work in this regard. In any case, this part will have a weight of 40% of the grade.

With regard to the laboratory practices, attendance is mandatory and the attitude, skill and the various materials that the teaching staff will give to the students depending on the practice (problems, questionnaire,...) are assessed. Attendance at the practical sessions is mandatory. Students will be graded "Not Assessable" when the absence is greater than 20% of the scheduled sessions.

The seminars will be worked on in class and will be evaluated with the delivery of questions and problems delivered on the same day of the seminar. The weight of practices and seminars in the final grade of the subject is 20%.

To take part in the recovery, students must have previously been assessed in a set of activities whose weight is equivalent to a minimum of two-thirds of the total grade of the subject or module. Therefore, the student will obtain the qualification of "Not Assessable" when the assessment activities carried out have a weighting of less than 67% in the final qualification.

The minimum grade in each of the assessable parts will be 4. To pass the subject, the grade must be equal to or higher than 5.

Single assessment

The single assessment consists of a single summary test on the contents of the entire theory program. It will coincide with the same date fixed in the calendar for the continuous assessment test and the same recovery system will be applied as for the continuous assessment. The grade obtained in the synthesis test is 80% of the final grade of the subject.

Students who take the single assessment must do the laboratory practices (PLAB) and seminars (SEM) in face-to-face sessions and it is a requirement to have them approved. The assessment and weight on the final grade of these will be the same as those of the continuous assessment (20%). The report of this section may be delivered on the same date set for the continuous assessment or coinciding with the date of the single summary test. To pass the subject, the grade must be equal to or higher than 5

 


Assessment Activities

Title Weighting Hours ECTS Learning Outcomes
control 40% 0 0 2, 9, 12, 19, 13, 16, 17, 15, 18, 28, 26, 30, 24, 6, 7
intervention in type II theory classes 40% 0 0 8, 4, 2, 3, 1, 5, 9, 10, 11, 12, 19, 13, 14, 16, 17, 15, 18, 20, 23, 21, 22, 28, 27, 24, 6, 7, 31
practices and seminars 20% 0 0 8, 4, 2, 3, 1, 12, 14, 16, 17, 18, 20, 23, 21, 22, 29, 28, 27, 25, 26, 24, 6, 7

Bibliography

 

REFERENCES

 

Lee BERGER i John HAWKS 2017. Almost humans: The Astonishing Tale of Homo naledi and the Discovery that changed our human story. Ed. Penguin USA.

 

Robert BOYD I Joan B. SILK. 2004. Como evolucionaron los humanos. Ariel Ciencia.

 

Domingo CAMPILLO i  M. Eulàlia SUBIRÀ. 2004. Antropología Física para arqueólogos. Ed. Ariel Prehistoria.

 

Eudald CARBONELL (Coordinador). 2005. Homínidos las primeras ocupaciones de los continentes. Ariel.

 

Clark Spencer LARSEN. 2010. A Companion to Biological Anthropology. Wiley-Blackwell.

 

Marina LOZANO i Xose Pedro RODRÍGUEZ. 2010. Dón venim? l'origen de l'Homo sapiens. Ed: Rafael Dalmau, col·lecció evoluciona núm 2.

 

Michael P. MUEHLENBEIN. 2010. Human Evolutionary Biology. Cambridge University Press.

 

Daniel TURBÓN. 2006. La evolución humana. Ariel.

 

 

 

SPECIFIC REFERENCES

 

La mayor parte de la asignatura se basará en bibliografía específica que se facilitará a lo largo de la impartición de la materia.

 

 

 


Software

Not required