Short Course Description
Nine 3-4 hour labs, 10 2-hour lectures, 4 credits. The course can be studied in the 1st or 2nd year (or in graduate school), or in the 1st year for the ecology & evolution and research tracks. There are no pre-requisites except curiosity and willingness to learn
Most courses in the Faculty of Life sciences deal either with very small levels of organizations (molecular and cellular) or very high ones (organismal, ecosystems). This course is among the very few that bridge the gap between these levels by exposing the students to both the organismal level and that of its gross anatomy, organs and their functional units, and organ systems. This is virtually the only course in the faculty that deals with vertebrate anatomy. As humans are vertebrates this course is also relevant to those who want to learn about our own anatomy (but it is not intended, and will disappoint those aiming to get a leg-up on medicinal anatomy ? when we teach human anatomy it is as an example of general vertebrate or mammalian anatomy).
The lectures and labs in the course cover three main aspects: biological diversity and evolution of vertebrates, the basic structure of the body systems in vertebrates, and a comparative examination of the changes of these systems throughout the evolutionary history of vertebrates. We will study the main groups of vertebrates throughout their evolution in the last 550 million years, with an emphasis on evolutionary succession and the similarities on the one hand and differences between groups on the other hand.
The emphasis is on comparative anatomy, evolutionary succession, and the adaptation of structure to function. Each system is reviewed from the basic functional unit, to the organization of the function units for the different organs, the location of the organs in the body, and the changes in the function of the organs in the context of different living environments and animal behavior. The laboratories for practical recognition of body systems will focus on comparative anatomy (between different vertebrate groups) and the relationship between structure and function (functional morphology). The course will include classroom lessons and labs. In the laboratories, the students will work in small groups (6-8 people) each with an instructor. The students will work in pairs and each pair will dissect several animals during the course (there is no obligation to dissect, but those who do not dissect must pair up with a partner who does).
Lectures:
Vertebrate origin paleontology and anatomy
Fish: Evolution and Biodiversity
Vertebrate organ systems
Evolution of tetrapods from fish
Modern amphibians, the evolution of amniotes
Reptiles then and now
Birds
Mammals
Functional morphology: movement
Functional Morphology: Nutrition
Labs:
Chordates, fish (jawless, cartilaginous, bony) - biological diversity
Shark dissection: digestive and urogenital systems
Shark dissection: The heart, circulatory and respiratory systems
Bird dissection
Mammal dissection
Anatomy of body systems
the skeleton parts
Comparative phylogeny of vertebrate skeletons
Functional skeleton morphology
the final grade is comprised of quizzes in the lab (20%), individual assessments by each student's TA (20%) and a final exam (60%)
Full Syllabus
