Mammals

Curious about our place in the 200-million-year story of mammals? A story beginning with tiny mammals that walked among dinosaurs.


Join world-renowned evolutionary biologist and London Natural History Museum Research Leader, Professor Anjali Goswami, to uncover the evolution of mammals in this in-depth online course. Trace your origins back to ancient ancestors who thrived in a world dominated by dinosaurs. Discover how these remarkable creatures adapted, survived extinctions, and evolved into the remarkable diversity of species found today.

  • Instructor:
    Prof Anjali Goswami

  • Number of chapters: 19

  • Course length: 2 hours 45 minutes

  • Course booklet included

Learn

In this course, explore: 
  • our evolutionary origins, from our ancestors’ split from the reptiles to the Jurassic mammals that hunted baby dinosaurs  
  • the adaptations that have led to mammals’ extraordinary success 
  • a new understanding of how the history of Earth’s changing climate directly led to the proliferation of modern mammals 
  • the incredible diversity of modern mammals and their recent ancestors, from the knuckle-walking, clawed cousins of horses to the largest animal on Earth 
  • what the future holds for mammals in a changing world 

Course plan

Meet your scientist

Professor Anjali Goswami

Professor Anjali Goswami is an evolutionary biologist and palaeontologist recognised for her groundbreaking research on the evolution and development of mammals. She’s currently a Research Leader at London’s Natural History Museum, a Professor at University College London and President of the Linnean Society. In 2024 Anjali was elected as a Fellow of the Royal Society. She’s made significant contributions to understanding the origins, diversity and adaptation of mammals through deep time by combining palaeontological data with cutting-edge techniques in morphometrics, 3D imaging and computational biology. 


Born in India and raised in the USA, Anjali earned her PhD in Evolutionary Biology from the University of Chicago. She’s since held prestigious academic positions, including a faculty role at the University of Cambridge and a fellowship at Imperial College London. Her research has taken her across the globe on fieldwork expeditions, from South America to Africa and Asia, where she’s studied the evolutionary history of a wide range of mammals, from the smallest rodents to the largest whales. In addition to her research, Anjali has written books for children and appeared as an expert on numerous TV and radio programmes, where she shares her expertise on the evolutionary processes that have shaped the natural world. 

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