ANIMAL BIODIVERSITY
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- Versione italiana
- Academic year
- 2021/2022
- Teacher
- STEFANO GRIGNOLIO
- Credits
- 6
- Curriculum
- BIODIVERSITA' ED EVOLUZIONE
- Didactic period
- Secondo Semestre
- SSD
- BIO/05
Training objectives
- The course of Animal Biodiversity copes with the many varieties of forms and functions of the animal world, with particular attention to vertebrate taxa. The course aims to provide:
- the basic principles of classification and identification of animals;
- the phylogenetic relationships between the different phyla;
- the knowledge bases of the body architecture of organisms, and their ecological role.
Students will reach the skills to understand the evolutionary forces that have favoured the development of the characteristics in the different phyla analysed as well as to understand how ecological factors can influence interactions with other living beings.
The specific objectives of the course are as follows:
- to know the principles of taxonomy and of zoological classification;
. to recognise the distinctive anatomical characters of the main phyla of the vertebrates;
- to know the main structural plans of animals, the evolutionary path and the phylogenetic relationships between the different phyla;
- to learn the essential tools of modern zoological systematics.
The main skills that the student will learn are:
- to recognize and classify organisms through comparative morphological analyses;
- to correlate the organizational plan of the body structures to adaptive and evolutionary aspects;
- to observe and record animal behaviour. Prerequisites
- No formal preparatory courses are required, but the student must possess the basic knowledge of Animal Biology provided in courses of Zoology and Ecology during the bachelor degree.
Course programme
- The course is composed of 52 hours, 40 hours of lectures and 12 hours of laboratory practice.
The lectures (40 hours) will deal with the following topics:
Animal biodiversity. Basic principles of taxonomy, systematics and phylogenesis. Zoogeography. The origin of vertebrates. Evolution in vertebrates of functions and systems such as locomotion, thermoregulation, respiration and circulation from fish to mammals. Main characteristics of Chondrichthyes, Osteitis, Amphibians, Sauropsids, Birds and Mammals. Reproductive systems in vertebrates. The fundamentals of wildlife management and conservation biology.
The practical activity (12 hours) will cover the recognition and classification of specimens of the different vertebrate taxa and the introduction to the main techniques of capture, census and behavioural analysis. Educational excursions will be held for the observation wildlife, compatibly with their feasibility, also in relation to health conditions. Didactic methods
- Lectures will come together with slides concerning every topic of the course. During the lessons, situations will be proposed to stimulate the students' abilities to develop critical judgment, to seek information using scientific sources, to increase their problem-solving skills. During the lessons, power-point presentations, videos and websites will be used to highlight the main characteristics of the taxa studied, their evolution and responses to ecological pressures. Specific readings and general knowledge will be offered to encourage the acquisition of specific skills and the ability of students to interact with an audience with heterogeneous training.
Learning assessment procedures
- The exam aims to verify the achievement of the training objectives of the course and will take place with an oral test.
To cope with the COVID-19 emergency and limit any inconvenience to students, the exams may take place in a different way than described above. Reference texts
- Casiraghi M, De Eguileor M, Cerrano C, Puce S (2018)
Zoologia - UTET
(e-book at https://www.pandoracampus.it/store/details/10.978.8860/087195)
