![]() “We provide skulls and other elements from morphology and allow students to make the conclusions about differences… and kind of give them a little bit of that excitement of making these discoveries themselves.” “One thing that’s really exciting and special about this class is we are teaching students how to make comparisons and derive their own ideas about human evolution through comparative anatomy,” said teaching assistant Caroline Shearer, an Evolutionary Anthropology Ph.D. ![]() This gives them the tools to examine fossil casts and bone specimens from species up to 4.5 million old in class, comparing the physical characteristics of the early hominins that could have given rise to humans: Homo naledi, Homo erectus, and Australopithecus afarensis (the first hominin fossil collection to become a household name - Lucy). The students begin the semester learning to differentiate between broad mammal groups like felids and canids. “Even simple things as walking and talking have taken millions and millions of years for us to develop, and I think it’s just something so magnificent.” “What’s been most interesting about this course is getting to understand and really know how much it took for us to get here,” said Riddick, a sophomore. Instead, the class shifted her view of the world. ![]() Elyana Riddick, a political science major, registered for an intro to evolutionary anthropology class only because she needed a natural science course to fulfill her requirements. ![]()
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