VERTEBRATE NATURAL HISTORY

http://i.imgur.com/CeXDuN9.png

Personal Species Account • Common Name: Emily • Scientific Name: Emilia brodskii • Field Marks: Can be easily identified by curly and often frizzy brown and

grey pelage. • Geographic Range: Year-round resident of Northern New England;

irruptional migrant to PA/mid-Atlantic and as far as FL; has been observed as a vagrant in Central America, the Caribbean, and the Iberian Peninsula.

• Behavior: can usually be found doing the naturalist crawl, reading with a warm cup of tea, cooking, or playing around with her acoustic guitar. Often associates with other species, especially a particular feline that shares her den.

• Diet: prefers pizza, peanut butter, and various fruits and vegetables, and during winter consumes abundant tea and soup.

Learning Objectives

Students will develop knowledge and skills in the following areas: • Evolutionary origins of chordates and vertebrates

• Evolutionary lineages of the major vertebrate classes

• Comparative anatomy and physiology of groups

• Traditional and modern systems of classification of organisms, including classical taxonomy, systematics, and cladistics

• Survey of selected taxonomic groups and species of fish, amphibians, reptiles, mammals, and birds

• Field and laboratory identification skills

• Natural history observation/interpretation and field journaling skills

Big Questions

• What makes a vertebrate a vertebrate?

• Where did the vertebrates come from, and how did they become so diverse and come to occupy all corners of the Earth?

• How do we make sense of all this diversity?

• How do scientists and naturalists figure all this stuff out?

What is a vertebrate?

Chordate Body Plan:

Vertebrate Body Plan:

http://archive.cnx.org/resources/7ef86481d7e03730490439562a3786b34bf2f77a/Figure_15_05_03.png

https://www2.gwu.edu/~darwin/BiSc151/Deuterostomes/vertebrate2.GIF

http://203.250.122.194/lecture/anatomy/htmanat1/anat07.htm http://aqfi.uaex.edu/people/faculty/akelly/z-agoodwin-and-files/Web-Files/Delete/BIOF%20Web%20page%202011/Text/5b%20Bones/Slide6.JPG

LANCELET

http://www.noelways.com/courses/Zoology/Dissections/Phylum_Chordata/Amphioxus1_a.jpg

https://dr282zn36sxxg.cloudfront.net/datastreams/f-d%3A26e4c941b5734268d5f88fb47626d30a300af10a7142b2bccf671597%2BIMAGE%2BIMAGE.1

TUNICATE (SEA SQUIRT)

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/c/cd/Tunicate_komodo.jpg/250px-Tunicate_komodo.jpg

http://archive.cnx.org/resources/7f489a12a1e4175002faedce6a3bf0982785aee3/Figure_15_05_04abc.jpg

Ontogeny

http://www.bio.miami.edu/dana/pix/embryos2.jpg

Vertebrate Classification

Systema Naturae (1735) – Linnaean Taxonomy

How do we classify the vertebrates?

http://www.otago.ac.nz/library/exhibitions/linnaeus/cabinet7/7-general-system-vol-v.jpg

Natural Selection (Darwin, 1859)

http://darwin-chicago.uchicago.edu/images/Origin-Species-390.jpg

1. Evolution

2. Species

3. Natural Selection

Principles of Natural Selection:

1. INTRASPECIFIC VARIATION

2. OVERPRODUCTION

3. ADAPTATION (TO ENVIRONMENTAL PRESSURES)

4. DESCENT WITH MODIFICATION (HEREDITY)

• Genetics (Mendel, 1865)

• Chemical structure of DNA (Watson & Crick, 1953)

Systematics: The Study of Phylogeny

Smallwood et al 1948. Retrieved from: http://phylonetworks.blogspot.com/2012/07/evolutionary-trees-old-wine-in-new.html

Scala Naturae (Ladder of Life) – Aristotle

http://palaeos.com/systematics/greatchainofbeing/scala_naturae.html

http://www.popsci.com/sites/popsci.com/files/styles/large_1x_/public/import/2013/images/2011/08/Picture%205_24.png?itok=OGSN9TqI

http://i.imgur.com/n0ln6.jpg

https://i.ytimg.com/vi/Egz2f5_Ip3U/maxresdefault.jpg

Cladistics (Hennig, 1966)

Time

Clade

Common ancestor

Cladogram

https://www.geol.umd.edu/~jmerck/tassite/eltsysex/sysq6.gif

http://evolution.berkeley.edu/evolibrary/article/phylogenetics_07

http://evolution.berkeley.edu/evolibrary/article/phylogenetics_07