Isn't nature beautiful? Evolution, the brilliant guiding force of biology, has favored random mutations that have created such wonderful living things, from dolphins to daisies, and from bunnies to the bony-eared assfish (yup, you read that correctly). This course will be a somewhat humorous approach to describing how living things got to be the way they are, guided by the always pleasant forces of death and sex. Not only good for making a crappy movie look more mature than it really is, death and sex are the reasons why we are bipeds with opposable thumbs and (usually) stunning intellects, and not muck-dwelling bacteria that make puddles smell like the dumpster behind your school cafeteria. It should also help explain why evolution has favored some organisms and traits that really don't make sense at first glance-- such as preying mantises sometimes eating their own mates, koala bears having teeny little brains, and male cardinals being bright red despite the fact that it makes them more likely to be seen by predators.

Isn't nature beautiful? Evolution, the brilliant guiding force of biology, has favored random mutations that have created such wonderful living things, from dolphins to daisies, and from bunnies to the bony-eared assfish (yup, you read that correctly). This course will be a somewhat humorous approach to describing how living things got to be the way they are, guided by the always pleasant forces of death and sex. Not only good for making a crappy movie look more mature than it really is, death and sex are the reasons why we are bipeds with opposable thumbs and (usually) stunning intellects, and not muck-dwelling bacteria that make puddles smell like the dumpster behind your school cafeteria. It should also help explain why evolution has favored some organisms and traits that really don't make sense at first glance-- such as preying mantises sometimes eating their own mates, koala bears having teeny little brains, and male cardinals being bright red despite the fact that it makes them more likely to be seen by predators.