DEEP EVOLUTION: USING ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE TO DECODE EARLY HUMAN ORIGINS

Credit Hours: 3 · Undergraduate Upper-Level

This course explores how artificial intelligence, machine learning, and data science are reshaping the study of human evolution by integrating computational approaches with paleoanthropology, anatomy, and archaeology. Through a chronological journey from the earliest hominins to the emergence of early humans, students learn how algorithms can classify fossils, detect morphological and behavioral patterns, reconstruct evolutionary relationships, and simulate the ecological and adaptive processes that shaped our species. Using real paleontological and archaeological datasets (3D bones and fossils), the course shows how AI enables new perspectives on long-standing questions about the origins of hominins (up to the emergence of Homo), the evolution of cognition and culture, and the environmental pressures driving evolutionary change. Emphasizing a multidisciplinary framework that combines biological evidence with computer vision and evolutionary modeling, the course equips students to critically assess the role of AI in evolutionary science and to apply digital tools to their own research questions, all in an accessible format that requires no prior background in mathematics or coding. Mutually Exclusive: Cannot register for ANTH 313 if student has credit for ANTH 513.