Animal Biology II

Foundation

The basic study of Animal kingdom is so extensive that from the beginning it approached from a highly descriptive perspective, and from hundreds of images and specimens preserved in jars and kept waiting for their study and identification. However, it is considered that the above has been an old and customary learning, reinforced by the way of transmitting this knowledge both in classrooms, as in various classic texts of Zoology, and the media. In this way, it could give the impression that the study of said taxon would consist solely of learning and reproducing descriptive aspects indicated in the various manuals and keys of each taxonomic group. However, it is important to highlight that the knowledge of animals does not imply the mere description of their characteristics, but also and especially, their change over time. Agreeing with the latter, we are deeply convinced of the importance of transmitting the evolutionary panorama of the Animalia Kingdom academically. Therefore, we propose to transmit the knowledge of animals from a biological evolutionary perspective, which will hold a more natural and less subjective vision, and a position in which man includes himself within this complexity of changes and events.
In this way, the subject raises the study of Chordates through the evolutionary analysis of the morphological and functional models of the different groups that compose them. The models will be analyzed from an evolutionary point of view, identifying the similarities and differences of the different organs, structures and systems that make up the body of vertebrates. Based on the comparative method, used in a historical and non-historical context, and as a research instrument to develop hypotheses, this course proposes:

Construct, through homologies, series of transformation that will allow us to interpret the phylogenetic relationships of the different groups of vertebrates
Analyze the bases of the different adaptations of the Chordates to their environment. Furthermore, for a better understanding of the processes involved, examples will be analyzed that include the transformation of feeding structures and locomotion as evidence of the evolutionary process.

Teaching team

Responsible: José Priotto - Andrea Steinmann

Members: Daniela Gomez - José Coda - Facundo Contreras - Vanesa Serafini