BY 303
COMPARATIVE VERTEBRATE ANATOMY
FALL, 2006
Instructor: Peter May, 156 Sage Hall, 822-8189. e-mail -
peter.may@stetson.edu
Office hrs: MW 8-11 a.m., T-1-2
p.m. Feel free to drop by any time I'm in my office if you have questions or problems
with the course with which I can be of assistance.
Lecture/lab: All meetings in 144 Sage. Lecture is
MW, 11:00-11:50. T and Th, 8:30-11:15 are scheduled for labs, although in most
weeks the Tuesday lab period will be used for a 50 minute lecture (starting at 9:00).
Lecture examinations will be given on Thursdays during the laboratory period;
on those weeks the laboratory will be on Tuesday. During the weeks in which laboratory
practical tests are scheduled, there will be two laboratory sessions, including
a Tuesday review period and the practical test on Thursday.
Texts: Kardong, K. 2006. Vertebrates:
Comparative Anatomy, Function, and Evolution. Wm.
C. Brown Publishers. 4th edition. Used copies
of earlier editions will suffice, some recent information
incorporated in later revisions may be absent.
Fishbeck, D.W., and A. Sebastiani. 2001. Comparative Anatomy:
Manual of Vertebrate Dissection. Morton Publishing Co.
Wingerd, B. 1985. Rabbit Dissection Manual.
Dissection
groups may wish to share copies of the two lab manuals rather than everyone
purchasing their own.
Web materials: All
class and laboratory handouts, including the syllabus, will be available on
Blackboard (http://blackboard.stetson.edu/) and on my personal website (http://helmet.stetson.edu/~pmay/). Scroll down to Course Materials and click on
the link entitled By 303 Comparative Vertebrate Anatomy.
Course description: This course presents a broad comparative analysis of
vertebrate morphology by considering anatomical structure and function and the integration
of these structures in the individual organism, and the relationship between
structure and functional demands of vertebrates to particular environments. In other words, this course emphasizes the
adaptations of vertebrate morphology to the environmental conditions faced by
vertebrates and their chordate ancestors in the remarkable range of habitats
and conditions under which they occur. The primary content of the lecture will
be detailed consideration of each vertebrate organ system, emphasizing the structure-function
relationship of the organs/organ systems, and the range of structural and evolutionary
modifications of organ systems seen in different vertebrate classes. We will also give brief
consideration to the evolutionary history and phylogenetic
relationships of the major vertebrate groups, including extinct but evolutionarily
significant taxa, and the basics of vertebrate development.
Laboratory
sessions will illustrate the basic vertebrate body plan and its range of
variation between vertebrate classes by dissection of representative vertebrates
from the agnathans (lamprey), chondrichthyans
(shark), amphibians (salamander) and mammals (rabbit).
By
the end of the semester, you should have a detailed understanding of the
anatomical structure and function of each of the major chordate groups:
non-vertebrate chordates, jawless fishes, cartilaginous fishes, bony fishes,
amphibians, reptiles, birds and mammals. NOTE:
There is very little consideration of human anatomy in this course, so if this
is your primary interest, you should probably take the Human Anatomy and
Physiology course offered by the department of Integrated Health Sciences.
Exams and grading: There will be
three lecture exams during the semester and a comprehensive final, and two
practical laboratory exams, weighted as shown below. Lecture test questions will
be drawn mainly from material covered in lectures. The text is rather detailed and full of
interesting and relevant information that we won't
have time to cover in lecture; completing the required readings as we cover the
material in lecture will greatly increase your comprehension of the subject
matter and your performance on tests.
All
students are expected to abide by the criteria of the
Stetson University Honor System, as specified in the Honor Pledge. The Honor Pledge and other information about
the Honor System can be found at http://helmet.stetson.edu/honorsystem/pledge.php.
Attendance: Since
test material will be drawn primarily from material
covered in lecture, and this material represents only a small subset of
coverage in the text, it is to your advantage to attend lecture regularly and take good notes. Attendance is mandatory at all laboratories
and regular attendance at lectures is expected.
FINAL GRADE COMPONENTS AND WEIGHTING
Lecture exam 1 Thursday, Sept 21 15%
Lecture exam 2 Thursday, Oct 26 15%
Lecture exam 3 Thursday, Nov 30 15 %
Lecture final Saturday, Dec 9, 1-3
p.m. 20%
Lab exam 1 - Thursday, Oct 5 15%
Lab exam 2 - Thursday, Nov 16 20%
Final
grades are assigned based on your sum of total points
scored, and the distribution of point totals among all students. Letter grades for the course will be
determined at the end of the semester based upon your cumulative total of
points earned on all graded material.
Approximate letter grades will be announced for
individual exams, but these are not used in final grade setting and are not
binding. If the total point distribution
is more or less normal, the top 10-15% of students will receive A's, the next
15-20% B's, and the rest C,D or F's depending on relative standing. The grading
scale may be curved down (don't depend on it, though),
but not up. There will be no
opportunities for extra credit. There
will be no make-up exams without a validated medical excuse or family
emergency.
SEQUENCE
OF TOPICS AND REQUIRED
No dates are given for this topic schedule, as my
projected dates are generally worthless.
Synchronize your reading with the current lecture topic.
TOPIC
1. Introduction; Evolution of chordate groups
and Chs.
1-3
distinguishing characteristics
2.
Development
Ch. 5
3.
Body-environment boundary; skin and derivatives
4. Skeletal
systems and support principles Chs.
4, 7-9
5. Movement, bone-muscle systems,
adaptations Ch. 10
to locomotion
6. Food
processing and nutrition Ch.
13
7. Gas exchange and transport
8. Circulatory
systems and internal transport Ch. 12
9. Excretion, osmoregulation, and Ch.
14
reproductive systems
10. Coordination and integration
- endocrine and Chs. 15,16,18
nervous systems
LABORATORY
SCHEDULE
(FS = Fishbeck and Sebastiani,
Comparative Anatomy . . .; Wn = Wingerd,
Rabbit Dissection Manual)
Week Topic
Manual pages
Aug 21-25 No
lab
Aug
28-Sept 1 Terminology, vertebrate
origins, FS
1-44
primitive
vertebrates Wn. ix,x
Sept 4-8 Integument, skeleton
and skull FS
47-66, 137-147, 205-216
Wn.
1-11
Sept
11-15 Skeletal systems II; Shark
muscular FS 67-78,
147-162, 216-226
system
Sept 18-22 Rabbit muscular system I
(Tuesday lab Lecture test 1 on Thursday)
Wn. 12-33
Sept
25-29 Rabbit
muscular systems II
Oct
2-6 Review (Tuesday); PRACTICAL TEST 1 (Thursday)
Oct
9-13 Digestive, respiratory systems FS 79-94, 163-174
Wn. 42-52
Oct
16-20 Urogenital
systems FS 95-100, 175-180
Wn. 65-70
Oct 23-27 Circulatory systems I FS
101-113, 181-188
(Tuesday lab Lecture test 2 on Thursday) Wn. 54-65
Oct
30- Nov 3 Circulatory
systems II
Nov
6-10 Nervous systems FS 117-124
Wn. 34-41
Nov 13-17 Review
(Tues), PRACTICAL TEST 2 (Thurs)
Nov
20-24 THANKSGIVING
NO LAB
Nov
27Dec 1 Lecture only Lecture test 3
on Thursday
Dec
4-8 Lecture only classes end
Wednesday