This introductory course will provide you with an up-to-date overview of human evolution. We start our journey with our common ancestor with the chimpanzee some seven million years ago and end with the colonisation of the New World by modern humans. No prior knowledge of human evolution is needed. The course is divided into five parts plus a course summary. Each part has reading material with a short test at the end. Each part should take about 1-2 hours to complete though you complete the course at whatever pace you want.
The Standard Version of the course includes 90-day online access while the Plus Version includes unlimited online access.
If you would like to submit an essay and have it graded with feedback please choose the Plus Version of the course when paying for the course.
Course outline:
- Hominin Beginnings
- The Australopithecines
- The Emergence of Homo
- Out of Africa
- Modern humans and Neanderthals
- Course Summary
Your Instructor
I'm Dr Adam Newton. I hold a PhD in palaeoanthropology from the University of Liverpool, UK.
My main area of interest is the origins of the genus Homo and the diet of early humans. However, I have a much broader interest on the evolution of life on earth, including the mechanisms of evolutionary change and how mass extinctions have shaped evolution.
For more information please my personal website.