Dr Charles Roseman - Genomes, phenomes, and fitness: Bringing the whole human organism into the study of human evolution

Dr. Charles Roseman

Department of Anthropology University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign

Genomes, phenomes, and fitness: Bringing the whole human organism into the study of human evolution

Wednesday, September 17 – 3:30pm IRMACS Theatre

Understanding the ways in which genes and environments interact to produce complex phenotypes and individual differences to fitness is of fundamental importance for the study of evolution. Concentrating on the evolution of human cranial form and the relationship between various life history traits and fitness in humans, I will talk about the ways in which evolutionary genetic models coupled with newly available genomic data can be used to answer long-standing questions about human phenotypic evolution. I demonstrate that the evolution of human cranial form was driven by multiple evolutionary forces that are only detectable by unifying phenotype and genotype. Looking to human life history characteristics and fitness, I demonstrate that the genetic variation in life history characteristics and fitness show secular change in a pedigreed historical sample from the 19th century American West. I use both of these examples to argue that, far from being reductionistic, genetics is the one thing that allows us to bring the whole human organism into the study of evolution.

A Joint Seminar Hosted by Mark Collard