2018/2019

2019/2020

DM270

BIO/05 (ZOOLOGY)

DEPARTMENT OF EARTH AND ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES

NATURAL SCIENCES

PERCORSO COMUNE

2°

2nd semester (02/03/2020 - 12/06/2020)

3

24 lesson hours

Italian

ORAL TEST

SACCHI ROBERTO (titolare) - 3 ECTS

The course assumes that students are familiar with basic evolutionary theory and general biology.

During the herpetology course, students will be introduced to the diversity and biology of amphibians and reptiles. The lecture component will have a global and diverse focus, covering topics of phylogenetics, the origin and evolution of amphibians and reptiles, the global diversity of these taxa, and their biogeography, biology, ecology and conservation. Lectures will be in the Natural History Museum of Pavia and students will learn to identify amphibians and reptiles, the anatomy of these taxa, and some field techniques that are useful for studying them. In the museum students will work with alcohol preserved specimens of major groups of amphibians and reptiles in order to appreciate how the really look like.

Course schedule (To be confirmed)
1. introduction
2. phylogenetics – evolution of tetrapods
3. Amphibians. Anatomy, ecology and distribution
4. Amphibians. Diversity and Systematic
5. Laboratory on amphibians
6. phylogenetics – evolution of reptiles
7. Reptiles. Anatomy, ecology and distribution
8. Reptiles. Diversity and Systematic
9. Laboratory on reptiles
10. Lecture by an herpetology curator
11+12. field trip

Field Trip: There will be one field trips during the semester in the surrounding of Pavia whereby students will familiarize with commonest species, field research methods, and standard procedures for morphological data collection.

Lectures with the use of preserved alcohol specimens in the collections of the Museum of Natural History of Pavia. It is expected to invite each year a curator of herpetological collections to hold a lecture on the ecology and conservation of amphibians and reptiles in Italy. Each student will have to undertake a research topic of their choosing and expose it to the class.

Research Topic: The Research Topic is an assignment with three components that will give students a taste of how to research a topic of their choosing that relates to herpetology. The first component is the Topic Bibliography. Students will select a topic that they are interested in, describe their topic, a gather a bibliography of papers related to that topic. The second component is the Next Logical Step. Students will select one article from their bibliography, paraphrase the article and describe a study that they think of that would answer a question that is unanswered by the article. The third component is a short, 10 minute presentation about their topic - here they get a chance to teach the class about their topic.

Pough, F.H., Andrews, R.M., Cadle, J.E., Crump, M.L ., Savitsky, A.H., Wells, K.D. 2004. Herpetology, Pearson Prentice Hall.

oral exam with identificatio of alcohol preserved specimens of amphibians and reptiles

oral exam with identificatio of alcohol preserved specimens of amphibians and reptiles