Zoology 250 Lecture 1
Introduction to Course
- Miscellaneous housekeeping (marks, penalties for cheating, overview of course, exam format, course website)
- Additional courses on invertebrate biology (Biol 355, summer courses at the Bamfield Marine Station and other marine stations; see notices on bulletin board outsize BioSci Z1116)
- Why study invertebrate biology?
- TECHNICAL REASON: to learn proper names of animals
- CONCEPTUAL REASON: to learn the history of animal life
- PRACTICAL REASONS:
- invertebrates are food for many vertebrates (wildlife & fisheries management)
- some human diseases are caused by invertebrates parasites
- knowing basic invertebrate biology yields insights into human biology, evidence of a common heritage (field of immunology founded by Metchnikoff in 1883 based on observations of clumping amebocytes in injured starfish larvae, later won Nobel prize)
- AESTHETIC REASONS: for the shear joy of discovering extraordinary forms and abilities of animals
- worms with a proboscis 350X longer than body (Echiura)
- worms 2m long & 3-4cm diam. have no gut (Vestementifera)
- largest living invertebrate is 19 m long and can swim at 25 kph in water! (giant squid)
- crab with a leg span of 4m (Japanese spider crab)
- crab with one claw at 40% of total body weight (fiddler crab)
- snails that paralyze fish & swallow them whole (cone snails)
- shrimp that grab fish out of the water or pulverize a snail shell by pounding (mantis shrimps)
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Copyright © 1997 by A. Richard Palmer. All rights reserved.(revised Jan. 8, 1997)