Directions to the lecture room:The building used to be reachable from upper campus using the overpass near Kincaid Hall. But alas, that route is impossible owing to construction. From upper campus, come down 15th avenue. Foege Building is on your left after you cross Pacific Avenue. To reach the S (South) wing, go halfway along the outside of the building and enter through the opening in the building, entering the part of the building closer to the bay. Enter it at the door which is to the right as you pass through the opening in the building. S110 is the first room on your left as you go along this 1st floor corridor.

Oh yes, and who is the building named after? Someone living: This guy. Not bad!

• Latest course news
• Description from the UW Course Catalog
• Syllabus of lectures
• Lecture materials (outlines, overheads, and audio recordings)
• Two past exams, so you can see what kinds of questions I ask. Note that the material of the course may have changed since:
  • 1996 midterm as a PDF
  • 2002 final exam as a PDF
• Books on reserve at Odegaard Undergraduate Library
• Who is this guy who is teaching the course, anyway?
  • (Biology Department version)
  • (Genome Sciences Department version)
  • (version on his own machine)
• Why don't we have a textbook?
• What are some other related courses?
• What are some Internet resources on evolutionary biology?
• Where can I get a copy of the computer programs?

(Most recent news is first)

• The exams will be mailed out over the next 24 hours (Monday and Tuesday) to those students who provided an address. Your exam point total, your course point total, and your grade are written on the front page near the top. Thanks for all the questions you asked in the course.
• The exams have been graded, the course grades set, and the grades submitted. The distribution of course point totals can be seen here (as a PDF distribution with 2-point classes). The approximate grade ranges are indicated on it.
• The second computer homework is available here as a PDF. It has many steps, so read it in advance and allow plenty of time to do it step-by-step. It is due on Wednesday the 25th of November, the day before the Thanksgiving holiday. You will also have to download some files from the download folder which is here.
• There will be two review sessions for the midterm exam. One will be 1:30-2:30 on Friday the 6th of November, the other at 3:30-4:30 on Friday the 6th. I will record both review sessions and post the sound recordings soon after. The Friday 3:30 session is in our classroom, S-110. I have not yet arranged a room for the Friday 1:30 session.
• Homework assignment #1 is now available, here as a PDF file. Due one week from today, on Monday, October 26 at the midnight at the end of that day.
• I have now updated the list of books on reserve for this course, to be available in Odegaard Undergraduate Library. The reserve list has been submitted as of 10/1 (quite late). But it will take a while for materials to actually be available.
• There is now a Genome 453 2015 email mailing list, to which I can post and so can all registered students in the course. We can post by emailing to genome453a_au15@u.washington.edu (I think you need to email from an account with the email address that is your official UW email). If people use it to ask questions of me, I will try to answer them promptly and everyone will see the questions and answers, which may be helpful. Archives of past messages should be available by going to http://mailman.u.washington.edu and searching for the list "genome453a_au15"

GENOME 453 Genetics of the Evolutionary Process (3) NW
Contributions of genetics to the understanding of evolution. Processes of mutation, selection, and random genetic events as they affect the genetic architecture of natural populations and the process of speciation. Emphasis on experimental data and observation, rather than mathematical theory. Prerequisite: either GENOME 371 or GENOME 372.

Instructor course description: Joseph Felsenstein

(I know it makes everyone insecure, but at the graduate level it is standard not to have a textbook. If you go to grad school you'll have to get used to it.) Mostly it's because I can't come up with one that covers adequately the particular mix of topics I give. Make a suggestion and we'll discuss it. I have considered or even used Futuyma, Maynard Smith's "Evolutionary Genetics", and others but they don't work. I will be handing out detailed outlines of the material covered in lecture, and see below for electronically accessible lecture outline and projection materials.

These resources are of three kinds:

• Lecture outlines. These are less than a text but more than an outline. They are PDFs of numbered lists of points covered in the lectures (with a few points not covered but added as supplementary information). Note that the lecture outlines this year will have some links to web pages giving more detail, and if you are reading them on a computer linked to the web, you can also click on those. They are labeled as “(old)” when they are the 2013 versions that have not yet been updated to 2015. They are fairly close to this year's, which will add some more material.
• Lecture slides. These are the PDFs of the slides used in the lectures. The slide PDFs are labelled “(old)” when they are from the previous time I gave the course, in 2013, and have not yet been revised. They are then preliminary versions of the lecture PDFs. More will be added to these before the lectures, but they are fairly complete. If the PDFs display on your computer rather than offer you the ability to download them, you should be able to use the Save As choice in the File menu on your browser to save them as PDFs.
• Audio recordings. They will posted here after each lecture. They will be in WMA and also in MP3 format. They have names that are the date of the lecture, so that the audio files for the lecture of 9/29 (for example) would be called 20150929.WMA and 20150929.mp3.

As the lectures are prepared (usually before or on the day they are to be given) I will try to update the lecture outlines and the computer projection PDFs. But sometimes I get rushed and cannot do so until after the lecture. The projection PDFs are listed in the following table under the topic which is being covered at the start of the talk. I may transition to the next big topic partway through the talk, so if you want to hear about any topic, check the last lecture of the previous topic -- it may start there.

If you want to see material from the 2013 course, just go here. It includes lecture outline PDFs, lecture slides, and even audio recordings of the lectures. But keep in mind that parts of this will change for 2015. The numbers of lectures in each part of the course will also change some.

Biology 354 (Foundations in Evolution and Systematics)

The main evolution course at the University, taught twice yearly. This quarter (Autumn 2015) the course is given by Jon Herron, co-author of the Freeman and Herron evolution textbook. In Winter 2015 this is given by Robert Bryson, a postdoctoral fellow who works on phylogeography and biogeography.
What is the difference between Genome 453 and Biology 354? Biology 354 is a fine course with a somewhat different emphasis. It is more oriented to covering issue such as evolutionary ecology, speciation, fossil record, and so on, while we spend more time than they do on genetic effects -- particularly molecular evolution, chromosome evolution, and population genetics. There is some substantial overlap. The syllabus of 354 for the autumn quarter indicates that it will cover some particular topics in more depth rather than attempt a broad survey.

Biology 414 Molecular Evolution

Theoretical and empirical study of molecular evolution. Taught Winter, 2016 by Vladimir (Volodymyr) Minin of the Department of Biology and the Department of Statistics, who is actively involved in developing methods for statistical and computationally analyzing molecular evolution.

Biology 415 (Evolution and development)

Advanced undergraduate course, requiring an introductory evolution course as a prerequisite, on "Evo-devo", the intersection of developmental biology and evolution. This has been an area where there have been a lot of recent advances. I am not sure when it will next be taught.

Biology 449 (Applied Phylogenetics)

A course in applied aspects of phylogenetics, with emphasis on exercises using actual data and widely-distributed programs. Taught by Adam Leaché, who works on coalescents and phylogenies in lizard species. To be offered in Winter, 2016.

Biology 481 (Experimental Evolutionary Ecology)

Lecture and lab course on evolutionary perspectives on ecology. Taught by Jake Cooper, who works in this area. I do not know when this will next be taught.

Genome 562 (Population Genetics)

Given every other year, this is the graduate theoretical evolutionary genetics course that I give. Lots of equations, though mostly at a low mathematical level. No pictures of cute furry animals. Next time it's given will be Winter, 2017. Text: my own extensive lecture notes, downloaded as PDF's for free or sold inexpensively (no royalty is paid to me).

Genome 570 (Phylogenetic Inference)

This is my graduate-level course on evolutionary trees. Methods for inferring phylogenies, and methods for doing things with them. Some background in statistics necessary. It will be given every other Spring (next time is Winter, 2016). Text is my book "Inferring Phylogenies".

Biology 550A (Evolution and Systematics Seminar)

A seminar Fridays at 1:30pm covering various topics in evolution. Runs Autumn, Winter, and Spring quarters.

Biology 550B (Paleo Lunch)

(No, the lunch is not fossilized). A lunchtime (Thursdays at 12:30) seminar on paleobiology. Autumn, Winter, and Spring quarters.

Others

There are more courses and I'll gradually try to put descriptions of them here.

There are many:

Blogs and Facebook pages

There are blogs, mostly for creation / evolution debating. There also used to be Usenet newsgroups such as sci.bio.evolution. The latter are accessible through Google Groups, but they are mostly defunct now.

Some brief descriptions of some of the major ones covering evolution:

The Loom (Blog)

Science writer Carl Zimmer's blog, with articles appearing frequently. Zimmer is also co-author of an evolution textbook.

Evolution (Facebook page)

A Facebook page run by Elise Andrew, who works in science publishing. Many posts about particular colorful cases of adaptations in organisms, few about technical issues in evolutionary biology. Creationist comments are common in the Forum section but seem to be blocked by the moderator in the comments on the posts.

Evolution (Facebook page)

Yes, there are two. This one is more oriented towards arguing for evolution. I am not sure who is running it.

Panda's Thumb (Blog)

Blog defending evolutionary biology against creationists and advocates of Intelligent Design.

Uncommon Descent (Blog)

Blog centered founded by William Dembski and Denyse O'Leary, critics of evolutionary biology and advocates of Intelligent Design.

Evolution News and Views

Does the name lead you to think that this is a blog by evolutionary biologists or science reporters? Wrong. It is a blog sponsored by the Discovery Institute, which promotes Intelligent Design. Don't get me started ...

Electronic journals

There is of course, the professional literature in evolutionary biology. Contrary to popular belief, scientists don't publish their works primarily by writing books. They publish papers in scientific journals. Some of these journals (links given below) are available in electronic versions for UW people. If these links don't give you access you should use the Electronic Journals links in the University Library site, and type in the name of the journal. Here are some direct links to the leading journals covering evolution:

• Molecular Biology and Evolution
• Systematic Biology
  • 1998-present
  • 1992-2007
  • 1952-1992 (as Systematic Zoology)
• Evolution
  • 2000-present
  • 1947-2007
• Journal of Molecular Evolution (1997-present)
• Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution (1992-present)
• Paleobiology
  • 1999-present
  • 1975-2009
• Journal of Evolutionary Biology
• American Naturalist 1867-present
• BMC Evolutionary Biology (Open Access) 2001-present

  There are also relevant papers on population genetics in genetics and genomics journals such as Genetics, Genome Biology, Genome Research, Nature Genetics, PLoS Genetics, BMC Genomics and Theoretical Population Biology.

Web Pages

• The amazing Tree of Life , a phylogeny of all life, in the making. Trees, figures, descriptions and references at a solid professional level, each page done by a major systematist working on that group. Much more complete for some groups than others. Explore!
• The TimeTree of Life finds estimated divergence times for many (pairs of) species. Includes a lot of downloadable PDF material including a whole book put out by this NSF-sponsored project.
• TreeBASE, a database of evolutionary trees (phylogenies) from the scientific literature. Weighted towards flowering plants, and badly suffers being only sporadically updated.
• My own PHYLIP free package of computer programs for inferring phylogenies.
• But maybe you don't want to be limited to just my programs? OK, try this listing which I maintain of all known Phylogeny Programs. As of September 2011 there were 369 programs and 53 web servers listed. Many of the programs are freely downloadable. Outdated and needs updating.
• The Paleontology Portal run by professional societies, the US Geological Survey, and the University of California Museum of Paleontology gives information on many groups and their fossils.
• The University of California Museum of Paleontology pages, which a number of evolution and phylogeny electronic exhibits. This is a sort of "virtual museum".
• Want some DNA or protein sequences? How about getting them from the international database? Try the Web pages of the databases at the NCBI, the National Center for Biotechnology Information of the National Library of Medicine, in Bethesda, Maryland. Not for the faint-hearted.
• Also not for the faint-hearted. The UCSC Genome Browser is the central site for the assembled human genome and comparative genomics for other mammalian species. See the genomics data not as some textbook illustration, but as the genomic “pros” see it.
• OrthoMam is a good collection of most gene families in mammals, aligned, and even with trees computed for each. You can get lots of data here. A good test of the reality of common descent is to see whether different genes give noticeably similar evolutionary trees (they won't be exactly the same for a number of reasons, including noisy data). Do they?
• Evolution web resources from the National Academy of Sciences aimed at the general public or scientifically knowledgable laypersons.
• The talk.origins Evolution FAQs (Frequently Asked Questions). These are FAQ pages started for the former talk.origins newsgroup, where evolution was defended against creationism. They have been expanded since and are generally a very complete resource for evaluating all sorts of creationist arguments.
• Kent Holsinger's Population Biology Simulations, some Java applets to illustrate various phenomena.

There are three computer programs available. Students in the course will be asked to run two of them, and submit a report of the results. The details of the assignments will be handed out later. One program, PopG, simulates evolution of gene frequencies of two alleles at a single locus in the presence of genetic drift, natural selection, mutation, and migration. The first computer exercise will consist of running this. The second program, ContEvol, is presented here in case you might want to play with it -- it will not be used in an assignment. It simulates the evolution of a quantitative character which is controlled by 5 loci, under the action of natural selection towards an optimum phenotype. The third program, Dnatree, simulates the branching of a phylogeny, the evolution of a DNA sequence along those branches, and allows the user to search by manually rearranging the tree for the most parsimonious tree, and see whether this recovers the true tree. This will be used for the second computer assignment.

The first program is available in newly updated form. The other two are older and have a clunkier interface.

(1) PopG -- Simulation of gene frequency evolution

This program is freely distributable. It is distributed as a Java program. You need to make sure that you have Java on your computer. Mac OS X systems and Linux systems tend to have Java. For Windows systems Java can be downloaded and installed from here. To read the web page which enables you to fetch PopG click here

(2) Evolution of a quantitative character

(We probably won't use this program this quarter, but feel free to play with it as a learning tool) This program is available from its web page, for which Click here

(3) Simulation of phylogeny and inferring phylogeny

This program, which we will probably use later in the quarter, is available from its web page, for which you should Click here