B027465 - VERTEBRATE ZOOLOGY

Italian

Evolution, phylogeny and taxonomic classification of living vertebrates. Morphological and physiological adaptations to life in water and on land: movements, respiration, excretion and sensory organs. Origin of anamniotes vertebrates. Adaptive radiation of Chondrichthyes and dominance of aquatic environments by Osteichthyes. The transition to land of vertebrates: origin, adaptive radiation and main characteristics of the various extant tetrapod groups.

Hickman. Animal Diversity. McGraw-Hill Education

Pough. Vertebrate Life. 9th edition. Sinauer Associates

Knowledge. Students will acquire knowledge about the main groups of living vertebrates and their adaptations to the environment, about the comparative morphology and physiology of different vertebrate taxa and on the ecology and diversity of vertebrates due to their adaptive radiation in various aquatic and terrestrial environments.

Acquired competences. They will learn about and critically discuss topics related to the study of vertebrates, both in their living environment and in the laboratory. They will address the study of the evolution of this monophyletic group of animals’ They will also acquire and discuss the different hypotheses of phylogenetic relationships both from a palaeontological and a genetic point of view. The evolutionary history of vertebrates, as the basis of current morphological constraints, and their adaptive response to various environments, will be the leitmotif of the course.

Skills and competences. Development of the appropriate zoological language, previously acquired; reading of evolutionary trees related to vertebrates; use of dichotomous tables for taxonomic classification; reading of graphs applied to zoology;
Ability to autonomous study in relation to zoological and evolutionary problems; ability to deepen and develop the topics dealt with in the course; ability to classify vertebrates at the different taxonomic levels: phylum, class, order, family, genus and species; ability to contextualise knowledge relative to the different groups of vertebrates in the environment; formulation of evolutionary hypotheses; interpretation of experimental data in the verification of hypotheses.

Lectures

Final examination: written essays

Introduction to vertebrate diversity: evolution and classification of living vertebrates.
Anamniote vertebrates. Morphological and physiological adaptations to life in water: movements, respiration, excretion and sensory organs of aquatic vertebrates. Adaptive radiation of Chondrichthyes and dominance of aquatic environments by Osteichthyes. The transition to land of vertebrates: origin and radiation of Tetrapoda. Lissamphibia, the modern amphibians: gymnophiona, Urodela and Anura.
The origin of Tetrapoda: amniotic eggs and impermeable skin. Synapsida vs Sauropsida: two different structural approaches to life on land. Why reptiles do not exist. Morpho-functional adaptations to the terrestrial environments evolved by chelonians and Lepidosauria (tuatara, lizards, snakes). The loricates. What dinosaurs were (and what they were not): the evolution of birds. Ectothermy vs. endothermy. Adaptive radiation and specialisation of birds.
Synapsids and the evolution of mammals. Characteristics, specialisations and evolutionary radiation of mammals.

SDG 4 Quality education
SDG 14 Life below water
SDG 15 Life on land