Syllabus
1) Antropology - definition and major topics. Human variability - morphology, regulations and genetics.
2) Morphology - body size and its adaptive meaning, ecological adaptations, adaptations of cranium, brain and sensory organs, adaptations of locomotor apparatus
3) Ecology, reproduction and social structure, behavioural ecology and socio-biology
4) Anthropological methods - morphology, morphometrics, molecular anthropology
5) Ontogeny and life histories - meaning of the ontogeny as an adaptive mechanism, heterochronies and allometry, growth rates and growth regulation, behaviour, morphology and growth mechanisms, sexual dimorphism and sex differentiation, adaptations of populations
6) Primates - introduction to primatology, basic definitions, taxonomy, biogeography and ecology, Theoretical aspects of primate phylogeny - theories on macroevolutionary and microevolutionary processes, adaptive strategy, adaptive and exaptive radiations, life forms, speciation, evolutionary and phylogenetic systematics
7) Prosimians, Anthropoids - New World monkeys,Old Worldmonkeys
8) Apes - hylobatids, orangutans and African apes
9) Origins of the primates, primate evolution in Paleogene
7) Differentiation of apes and hominids, origin of hominids and its ecological perspectives, major hominid features
8) The oldest hominids, the evolution of early australopithecines, basic featurer of Ardipithecus and Australopithecus, definition of afarensis group
9) Differentiation of australopithecines and origin of genus Homo; robust australopithecines their origin and differentiation, specialization and specific features of robust australopithecines, origin and taxonomy of early Homo
12) Evolution of genus Homo - Lower Pleistocene, Middle and Upper Paleolithic evolution of Homo sapiens - hunter or hunter-gatherers, material culture and it adaptive meaning, major adaptive processes in Homo sapiens evolution
13) Ecological aspects of human evolution, ecology of paleolithic man, transition from Paleolithic to the early agriculture, colonisation of the world by hominids, behavioural ecology and biogeography of hominids
Annotation
Lectures are focused mainly on primatology, evolutionary, paleobiological and biosocial topics of physical anthropology. It will concentrate on general evolution of hominids, apes biology and behavior, phylogeny of primates in general, evolution of hominids with a special regards to origin and evolution of genus Homo and human colonisation of the World.