VERTEBRATE NATURAL HISTORY
BIOL 308 - 309
Fall 2011
Instructor:Dr. Carlos A. Iudica
Office: 210 B Darwin’s Hall (NSB)
Lab: 217 Darwin’s Hall (NSB)
Office Hours:Mondays & Fridays 1:30 – 3:00, whenever the door is open, or by appointment
Office Phone:372-4208
Research Lab Phone:372-2846
Email:
Meeting Time: Lecture: Monday, Wednesday, and Friday 09:00 – 09:50;
Lab: Wednesday 01:00 – 04:00 (BUT veryflexible, see Course Schedule)
Location–Lectures and Labs: New Science Building 223
Website:
Course Description
This course deals with the taxonomy, natural history and ecology of vertebrates. Lectures provide a general introduction to the vertebrates, and emphasizes on the evolutionary history, classification, and ecology of vertebrates in general. Through the different laboratories you will be introduce to field and laboratory techniques of identifying Pennsylvania vertebrates, specimen handling, dissection and preparation, and field sign recognition. Let us start!
Course Goals
By the end of the semester, you should….
- Have the ability to recognize most common vertebrates (fishes, amphibians, reptiles, birds, and mammals) found in central Pennsylvania and have a general understanding of their life histories, distribution, and habitat requirements
- Become familiar with the science of taxonomy, general field collection and identification methods, and appropriate handling, husbandry and preparation techniques
- Understand why we think birds are reptiles (or more precisely, well-adapted, small dinosaurian)
-Develop oral and written communication skills as well as increase your ability to work in teams
Performance Standards and Course Competencies
Subject matter will be covered in class and in reading assignments from textbook and other sources. Writing assignments and/or oral presentations will be used to improve your communication skills. Specimens handling, preparation, dissection, and identification will be part of your assignments and will stimulate you to develop skills no other course will. Scheduled exams or surprise quizzes will be used to assess completion of reading assignments and to monitor attendance and participation, so your attendance will be critical to your gaining an understanding of the course. In addition, you are, of course, responsible for all material presented in both labs and lectures.
Required Texts & Field Supplies
Lecture Text: Linzey, D. W. 2001. Vertebrate Biology. First Edition, McGraw Hill.
** Handouts and preparation guides may be available on the course’s website and you are expected to download them and bring them to the particular lab **
Laboratory texts: A series of field guides will be required (at least one per team) as references for completion of the laboratory and to support the lecture. The following are suggested but there are alternatives that you may prefer, like, or already have.
The idea is to have field guides for every major vertebrate group
(fish, herps –amphibians and reptiles-, birds, and mammals)
Fish: Page, L. W., and B. M. Burr. 1991. The Peterson field guide series No. 42: Freshwater fishes. Houghton Mifflin Co., Boston.
Herps: Conant, R., and J. T. Collins. 1998. The Peterson field guide series No. 12: Reptiles and amphibians: Eastern/Central North America. Houghton Mifflin Co., Boston.
Birds: Robbins, C. S., B. Bruun, and H. S. Zim. 2001. A guide to field identification: Birds of North America. Golden Press, NY.
Mammals: Reid, F. A. 2006. The Peterson field guide series No. 5: A field guide to the mammals of America north of Mexico. Fourth Edition. Houghton Mifflin Co., Boston.
Field equipment: A good pair of binoculars for use in the field is strongly recommended - this is something you can use for many years following this class. A digital camera will be useful in documenting your field notes as well. If you have a valid-current PA fishing license bring it to each lab. A minimum of one of each item (lab texts and field equipment) for every team is required.
** Appropriate footwear and long pants must be worn for all outdoor activities - we WILL be tromping through swampy habitats and/or poison Ivy ***
Be ALWAYS prepared!!!
Supplemental Reading Material
From time to time, you may have material to read on E-Res ( I will let you know when you need to read the material on e-res.
Other Resources
This course has a website ( which includes links to course materials and to other resources relevant to the course. Additional readings from the website and other sources could (and may) be assigned occasionally.
**NOTICE**
**Any changes or modifications to course content or information will be posted on the course web page and it is YOUR responsibility to be up to date. Visit this site periodically (like once every week)**
Small Groups: One of the activities during our first lab will be to create working groups. During our class on August 31, the class will organize itself into groups or teams of twostudents. Each team will name itself and present itself to the rest of the class. The teams will be the units which will work together during the rest of the semester’s activities (field work and lab reports). Indeed, the production of each of the projects that call for teamwork will be based on a collective group effort. Please, choose your teammate carefully; you will not be allowed to change teams throughout the semester.
Major Course Requirements
Lectures: Each lecture is intended to provide an overview of the topic, rather than an exhaustive discussion. If you need a more balanced and in-depth treatment of each topic you should go back to your text book and look at the end of each chapter, on the “Supplemental Reading” section. Lecture notes will be posted on the course web page under "lecture notes" only after we finished with the corresponding chapter. Remember that the information offered on the lectures’ web site is provided only to fill in gaps you may have in your notes. It is not at all a substitute for attending a lecture. You are expected to be prepared and to participate in all class activities.
Laboratory: The lab activities will be based on frequent field trips, for observation and specimen collection that will be followed by exercises in identification, specimen preparation, and museum techniques to illustrate and augment the concepts and content of the lecture.
You may want to bring a notebook to keep data and notes, waterproof pen or simply a pencil, a good pair of scissors, and a digital camera (at least, one per group). Please be aware that most labs will be outside (rain or shine). Therefore, dress appropriately with long pants and grubby shoes. We may need to work in areas with thorny plants and lots of mud. Be prepared!
Active participation by students in laboratories is expected. My ability to provide extensive field experiences is based upon students acting responsibly and in a spirit of cooperation. Irresponsible behavior and/or blatant disregard for safety are grounds for dismissal from the course. Each group will be responsible for producing four (4) lab reports (Fish, Herps, Birds, and Mammals). All lab reports will amount to a total of 600 points (60% of your final grade for BIOL 309).
Lab Reports: During your labs you will be required to take notes on the activities you and your group are performing. The more notes you take during a lab, the more material you will have to generate your lab reports. In most cases, the lab activities will involve field trips and therefore, your field log will include a “trapping or observation report”, names of animals, pictures you or somebody else takes, weather conditions, etc. In general, try to answer the following questions when working on your lab report:
-what we did?
-how we did it?
-where and when we did it?
-why we did what we did?
-what we found?
-how we found it and what it means?
-what is next?
All organisms mentioned on the lab report should have common and scientific names (including authority and year). For this and for any written work you produce for this course, only scientific names will be in italics. Add to this basic “enumeration of events” the current family name, distributional data, biogeographical, ecological and conservation information for each species. Use the report to “force” yourself to “dig” information from the library. No web sources!
For help on this and for any other written assignment you should check also the WritingCenter at SU Tutorial Services, which is part of SU Library. For your “Reference” or “Literature Cited” section (if needed, not exclusive of Lab Reports)), please use the style of the Journal of Mammalogy. On every work you produce, you have to provide common names and scientific names, authority (at least once) and a basic taxonomy/classification with its source. Each group will send me an e-mail to let me know that you submitted a copy of your complete lab report to Hopper/Vertebrates/2011 on time. Also, remember to submit an electronic copy (no figures, just text) to by or before the corresponding due dates (see Course Schedule). Please, include the names of members of the group and the title on each report. Name the reports ONLY using your last names!!! Sorry, but no late lab reports will be accepted ever.
An Important Note About Museum/Collection Specimens: Many of the specimens that you will be using for species identification exercises in the lab are fragile, difficult and expensive to replace (if replaceable at all) and are, consequently, quite valuable. It is extremely important that you treat museum/collection specimens with care and respect to ensure that the specimens will be available to future classes. Please be advised that I have very strong feelings about proper care of museum specimens.
Hopper: For every assignment you or your team is responsible, you will send me an e-mail to let me know that you already uploaded a copy of your work to Hopper\Vertebrates\2011. To link your computer to Hopper (a server at SU) follow the instructions on the course’ website (DRIVE).
Make sure that you name your files using your last name ONLYand place it on the proper folder inside \2011. Once your work is reviewed, I will add “REV” at the end of the file name. It is your responsibility to let me know that your work is in Hopper on time (via e-mail). If you have any problem, contact Brady Gallese at .
Turn it in dot com: As a general rule, every assignment will have to be submitted to Hopper\Vertebrates/2011 by or before the end of the day on the respective due date. You will also be required to submit an electronic copy (textonly) of your assignment to by or before the end of the day on the respective due date. The first time you get to turnitin.com you will be required to register. Be prepared and plan ahead. For students to enroll in turnitin.com’s class site, you will need both, the enrollment password: vertebrate11 (which is case sensitive) and the unique class ID: 4142914. Sorry, no late papers will be accepted at this site. If you do not upload a copy of your assignment into Turnitin.com on time, your final grade for that assignment will be reduced to 50%. The same goes if you do not upload a copy of an assignment on time into Hopper.
Natural History Paper: It is impossible to cover all aspects of vertebrate diversity in a single semester course; there is, quite simply, too much information. In particular, the vast diversity of lifestyles among vertebrates precludes in-depth coverage of the natural history of any taxon. Furthermore, because each student may have a favorite species that she/he might be looking forward to learn about in Vertebrate Natural History it is futile to try to satisfy the interests of any fraction of the students. So, here is the opportunity to do it yourself! You can become an expert in the biology of your favorite vertebrate species (unless was taken by somebody else already).
You will write a paper on the natural history of a vertebrate species of your choice. You must submit a proposal with the common and scientific name of the species (including the authority) to me by Monday, September 12. Look at the course website (Natural History Papers) for the list of species already done. On our second lab class we will go to the library and you should do a literature search on candidate species. With that information, you will be able to make a final decision. Each student must write on a different species. I may reject a proposed species because:
1-it has already been assigned to another student,
2-the name of a group not a species is submitted,
3-proposals for too many closely related species have already been accepted, or
4-I doubt there is enough information on the species to write a good paper.
This is on a “first come – first serve basis”; therefore you should submit your proposal as soon as you can. However, if you plan to submit a name on the last day, submit several names or risk suffering the late penalty each day until you submit an acceptable proposal. Your proposal should be an e-mail to me stating the names (scientific and common) using the authority. This assignment will be divided into three "installments", each due at a different date (see course schedule on Syllabus). Sections one and two should be at least three but not more than five pages long (bibliography, figures, tables, graphs, and other display items do not count towards the length of the paper; if you decide to include any of these, they should be presented in separate pages after the bibliography section). The third installment is a revised version that must incorporate feedback and corrections provided by me on sections one and two. This section (3) should not show any of the corrections/suggestion from previous versions. This paper must be written in proper English, using correct spelling, sentence structure, and paragraphs. Use the most recent information published for your species of choice. There will be a ten-point per day penalty for late submission of either the proposal or each one of the sections of the paper.
Coverage of the paper: You should select a species for which there is enough information to write a reasonably comprehensive natural history paper, but be aware that the same kinds and amounts of information are not available for all species. Be critical when choosing your sources, and remember that I will not accept any web based source. Your paper should be divided into the two sections listed below. Each section is due at a different date during the semester.
Section 1: Description and Systematics (due Monday, October 10; one copy to \\Hopper\Vertebrates\2011, and another copy (textonly) to by the end of the day on the respective due date).
1. Physical description: Who and when described and named this species? What is the meaning of its name? Provide the original reference and, find the location of the type specimens. Give a physical description of your species using the terminology customarily applied to morphology of the group in the biological literature, including dental formula, external dimensions, etc. However, you can shorten the description by stating the major group to which your species belongs. For example, if you say your species is a placental mammal, you need not say, for example, that it has hair, produces live young, and has mammary glands. Include appropriate measures of size (metric units), general body form, color, and skin structure and texture. Note whether its coloration and other features render it cryptic or conspicuous in its normal habitat. Note unusual external or internal features.
2. Systematics and paleontology: Discuss the phylogenetic relationships of your species. To what higher taxa does it belong, and what are its closest relatives? Present one or more phylogenetic trees always citing the sources. What taxonomic characters are used to distinguish this species from related species and to classify species in the higher taxon to which the species belongs? (Although this information should be included here, minimize redundancy with the physical description). It is unlikely that the species you select has a fossil record, but if it does, summarize that info here. Whether or not the species itself has a fossil record, it may be informative to discuss the fossil record of the group to which your species belongs. Summarize the temporal and spatial distribution in the fossil record of the species or higher taxon to which your species belongs. Information on systematics and paleontology will differ greatly among species. If there is controversy or uncertainty over your species relationships, let’s discuss it.
3. Geographical distribution: State where your species occurs using physical units (e.g., islands, peninsulas), geographical units (e.g., countries, states), and compass directions (e.g., northern, southern), as appropriate. Distinguish between the native and introduced distribution, if necessary. Indicate whether the distribution has increased or decreased in historical times and why. If it is known, discuss effects of the last glacial advance ("ice age") or climatic fluctuations on the distribution of your species. Discuss the geographical distribution of fossils (here or above). Indicate whether there are reasons to be uncertain about its distribution. A description of the species geographical distribution is required, but may be combined with the ecological distribution.