BAA 289L Comparative Mammalian Anatomy
Instructor: Dr. Anne Weil
Above: Students in the 2004 class hear a short presentation on the opossum Monodelphis, and ask questions.
This is a dissection course, in which 2-person teams research, dissect, and write about a variety of different mammals. We dissect the animals simultaneously, one area or system each week, to enable comparisons among widely differing morphologies. Comparisons will emphasize functional morphology and phylogenetic history.
There is no textbook for 289L, and assigned reading is light (although required!). The emphasis is instead on students' researching their animal in reference works and in the primary literature, and synthesizing what they learn for other students and for a larger audience.
There are no exams, but each team will make a 5-minute class presentation and turn in a lab write-up and labelled digital photos every week. Everyone can get an "A"; I will correct as many revisions as necessary to help students produce an end-product that is publishable on the World Wide Web. Write-ups and photos will be published on the Web.
Email for permission to see the work of previous classes.
Permission numbers are required. Order of priority is generally grad students, seniors, juniors. (Grad students have somewhat different assignments.) Do not take this class in an "overload" semester; it is a lot of work.
THIS CLASS HAS ONLY 10 SPACES.
read about Dr. Weil's research
Class Schedule:
Wednesday 3:55-6:25
representative course information and assignment list from Spring 2002 (opens as a .pdf file, requires Adobe Acrobat Reader)