A New History of Life

Course Overview

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.

Course No. 1520

This 36-lecture course covers Earth’s 4.54-billion-year history through:

• Major evolutionary transitions
• Mass extinction events
• Climate transformations
• Fossil record discoveries
• Human origins in context

Professor Sutherland presents life’s epic story from primordial Earth to modern humans, revealing how interconnected systems shaped our planet’s biodiversity.

Key Topics Covered:

• Origin of life theories
• Snowball Earth hypothesis
• Cambrian explosion
• Transition to land
• Dinosaur dominance
• Mass extinction causes
• Mammal evolution
• Human consciousness

Video Lectures

01: The Interconnected Earth (30 min)

Earth system science and planetary interactions.

02: The Vast Depths of Earth Time (31 min)

Discovering geological time scales.

03: Fossil Clocks (29 min)

Biostratigraphy and dating rock layers.

04: Paleontologists as Detectives (30 min)

Interpreting fossils and avoiding biases.

05: The Shifting Surface of Planet Earth (29 min)

Continental drift and plate tectonics.

06: Earliest Origins-Formation of the Planet (29 min)

Solar system formation and moon creation.

07: Origins of Land, Ocean, and Air (29 min)

Earth’s primordial landscapes and atmosphere.

08: The Early Chemical Evolution of Life (28 min)

Scenarios for life’s beginnings.

09: Hints of the First Life Forms (31 min)

Ancient fossils and Martian meteorite theories.

10: How Life Transformed the Early Earth (29 min)

Bacteria’s planetary impact.

11: Snowball Earth-Another Crisis (29 min)

Global glaciation 635 million years ago.

12: Metazoans-Life Grows Up (29 min)

Transition to multicellular organisms.

13: Incredible Variety-The Cambrian Explosion (28 min)

Evolutionary arms race and diversification.

14: Window to a Lost World-The Burgess Shale (30 min)

1909 fossil discovery revealing Cambrian life.

15: The Forgotten Fossils in Earth’s Story (31 min)

Corals, reefs and micropaleontology.

16: Introduction to the Great Mass Extinctions (29 min)

Background vs. catastrophic extinction.

17: The Collapse of Earth’s First Eden (29 min)

First mass extinction causes.

18: Making the Break for Land (29 min)

Water-to-land adaptations.

19: Getting a Backbone-The Story of Vertebrates (30 min)

Early chordates and skeletal evolution.

20: The Evolution of Jaws (28 min)

Vertebrate predatory advantages.

21: These Limbs Were Made for Walking? (30 min)

Water-land transitional theories.

22: Tiktaalik-The Search for a Fishapod (30 min)

Missing link between fish and tetrapods.

23: Carboniferous Giants and Coal (30 min)

300-million-year-old ecosystems.

24: Amniotes-The Shape of Things to Come (30 min)

Egg-laying tetrapod classification.

25: Permian Extinction-Life’s Worst Catastrophe (30 min)

End-Permian mass die-off.

26: Finding the Killer-The Greenhouse Earth (30 min)

Causes of Permian extinction.

27: The Dinosaurs Take Over (29 min)

Post-extinction reptile dominance.

28: Letting the Dinosaurs Speak-Paleobehavior (31 min)

Dinosaur appearance and physiology.

29: Conquering the Air-The Evolution of Flight (29 min)

Insect and avian flight origins.

30: Monsters of the Deep-Mesozoic Oceans (30 min)

Ancient marine reptiles.

31: The Cretaceous Earth-A Tropical Planet (30 min)

Global hothouse conditions.

32: The Sky Is Falling-End of the Dinosaurs (30 min)

K-T extinction asteroid impact.

33: The Collision of North and South America (29 min)

Continental bridge biogeography.

34: The Rise of Mammals and the Last Ice Age (29 min)

Post-dinosaur mammalian expansion.

35: The Humble Origins of Human Beings (30 min)

Hominin brain and bipedal evolution.

36: The Conscious Earth (37 min)

Evolution of awareness and future prospects.