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A New History of Life

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Overview

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Learn the history of life in a dramatic new way with this fascinating course that draws upon biology, earth science, and other disciplines to explain life's mysterious origins.

Syllabus

  • 01: The Interconnected Earth
  • 02: The Vast Depths of Earth Time
  • 03: Fossil Clocks
  • 04: Paleontologists as Detectives
  • 05: The Shifting Surface of Planet Earth
  • 06: Earliest Origins-Formation of the Planet
  • 07: Origins of Land, Ocean, and Air
  • 08: The Early Chemical Evolution of Life
  • 09: Hints of the First Life Forms
  • 10: How Life Transformed the Early Earth
  • 11: Snowball Earth-Another Crisis
  • 12: Metazoans-Life Grows Up
  • 13: Incredible Variety-The Cambrian Explosion
  • 14: Window to a Lost World-The Burgess Shale
  • 15: The Forgotten Fossils in Earth's Story
  • 16: Introduction to the Great Mass Extinctions
  • 17: The Collapse of Earth's First Eden
  • 18: Making the Break for Land
  • 19: Getting a Backbone-The Story of Vertebrates
  • 20: The Evolution of Jaws
  • 21: These Limbs Were Made for Walking?
  • 22: Tiktaalik-The Search for a Fishapod
  • 23: Carboniferous Giants and Coal
  • 24: Amniotes-The Shape of Things to Come
  • 25: Permian Extinction-Life's Worst Catastrophe
  • 26: Finding the Killer-The Greenhouse Earth
  • 27: The Dinosaurs Take Over
  • 28: Letting the Dinosaurs Speak-Paleobehavior
  • 29: Conquering the Air-The Evolution of Flight
  • 30: Monsters of the Deep-Mesozoic Oceans
  • 31: The Cretaceous Earth-A Tropical Planet
  • 32: The Sky Is Falling-End of the Dinosaurs
  • 33: The Collision of North and South America
  • 34: The Rise of Mammals and the Last Ice Age
  • 35: The Humble Origins of Human Beings
  • 36: The Conscious Earth
  • By This Professor

Taught by

Stuart Sutherland

Reviews

4.7 rating at The Great Courses Plus based on 104 ratings

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