We share the planet with well over 1.5 million other animal species. This course covers how the staggering diversity of the animal kingdom came about through underlying molecular evolutionary phenomena, including gene and protein sequence evolution, gene family and genome evolution, the evolution of developmental processes, neural circuit evolution and behavior, and molecular mechanisms that physiologically adapt animals to their environment. Molecular processes involved in speciation will be explained, together with an analysis of constraints and catalysts on the production of selectable variation that have shaped the evolution of animal life. Participants will undertake a laboratory project on evolutionary genomics, involving fieldwork, genome sequencing and comparative genome analysis. The course focuses on the >99.9% of animals that lack backbones. Not offered 2023-24