INTRODUCTION TO Zool 250
Why study invertebrate biology?
- 1) TECHNICAL REASON: to learn proper names of animals
- 2) CONCEPTUAL REASON: to learn the history of animal life
- 3) PRACTICAL REASONS:
- invertebrates are food for many vertebrates (wildlife & fisheries management)
- causes of human disease & agricultural pests are invertebrates
- 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 the Nobel prize in medicine
- sea squirt endostyle is homologue of human thyroid gland
- 4) AESTHETIC REASONS: for the shear joy of discovering extraordinary forms and abilities of animals ('tis a curious world)
- 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 © 1998 by A. Richard Palmer. All rights reserved.
(revised Jan. 9, 1998)