Introduction to Agricultural Zoology
Norelie O. ibacarra, DVM
About the course: COURSE NUMBER: AG BIO 3
COURSE TITLE: AGRICUTURAL ZOOLOGY
COURSE OUTLINE
The course study the concept of Zoology involving theoretical and
laboratory experiences. Studentsare expected to understand and learn the
science perspective, attributes, composition and complexity ofliving
organisms. Laboratory work is an integral part of the course, involves
performances of exercises
and dissection. Credit Units: 4
Number of Hours: 90
Semester Offered: 1st Semester
COURSE OBJECTIVES:
1. Understand the general principles that unite animal biology.
2. Appreciate the diversity fiound in the animal kingdom and understand the
evolutionaryrelationships that explain the diversity. 3. Become familiar with
the structure and function of vertebrate organ system.
Unit I: Biological Lesson Objectives
Principles and the 1. Define zoology, animal diversity, and enumerate its
branches
Science of Zoology 2. Explain the importance of taxonomy and variation among
animal populations.
3. Become familiar with scientific method to carry out an
experiment that requires critical thinking and analysis of
data.
Introduction Zoology is the branch of biology concerned with the study
animals and animal kingdom. It is also known as animal
biology. The study of zoology includes the interaction of
animal kingdom in theirecosystems such as classification,
habits, structure, embryology, distribution, evolution, and
extinctspecies.
Zoology is the division of biology that deals with the animal
kingdom. It is the scientific study related to the entire
species of the animal kingdom. The study of zoology
includes animals physiology, their behavior, and their
interaction with otherspecies in their environment. It is a
huge course that includes the distribution of every animal
species onearth including extinct animals. Apart from the
animal kingdom and ecosystem, zoology also exploresthe
new areas of research
Some Branches of Mammalogy - the study of mammals. A popular type of
mammalogy is primatology - the study ofprimates.
Zoology Ornithology - the study of birds.
Herpetology - the study of amphibians and reptiles.
Ichthyology - the study of fish.
Entomology - the study of insects. Entomology is itself
broken down into many categories because there are so
many types of insects. Some examples of its subcategories
are Lepidopterology, the study of butterflies and moths,
Myrmecology, the study of ants, and Coleopterology, the
study of beetles.
TAXONOMY: THE Why Classify?
Biologists group organisms based on similarities and
STUDY OF differences in the organisms’: -Physical
IDENTIFICATION, Appearance
CLASSIFICATION, -Genetic Makeup
AND -Evolutionary History
NOMENCLATURE This helps to:
1. Identify organisms more efficiently
2. Study group characteristics
3. Determine relatedness
Taxa => Taxonomy Domain => Kingdom => Phylum => Class => Order =>
Family => Genus =>Species
Carolus Linnaeus is responsible for the development of
binomial nomenclature—the use of the genus and species to
identify an organisms
Rules for Nomenclature
First letter of genus is always CAPITALIZED
If printed or typed both should be italicized
If handwritten both should be underlined
After writing a scientific name completely, you can
abbreviate thereafter by using the first letter
of the genus, a period, and then the species name.
Scientific Name Household Cat - Felis catus
Dogs and Wolves - Canis lupus
Examples
Lions - Panthera leo
Tigers - Panthera tigris
Humans - Homo sapiens
Neanderthals - Homo neanderthalensis
Staph - Staphylococcus aureus
E. Coli - Escherichia coli
Identifying Organisms It’s fairly easy to identify which kingdom, phylum, and
often class an organism belongs to based on simple, often
obvious, characteristics
Membrane Bound Organelles - Eukarya (Domain)
Multicellular, but lacking cell walls - Animaliae (Kingdom)
Spinal Cord and Tails - Chordata (Phylum)
Single Tooth Replacement, live offspring -Mammalia
(Class)
Forward Facing Eyes - Primates (Order)
More specific characteristics, require careful observation
and are typically used to distinguish between orders,
families, genuses, and species. Dichotomous keys are often
used to determine the exact species and genus of an
organism
Use visible characteristics to determine an organism’s
identity
Characteristics are presented in pairs (i.e. Blue vs. Not
Blue)
Progressively reduces the number of potential species
Can be presented with text or a flow chart.
All living things share a single, common ancestor that
The Tree of Life evolved over millions of years to bring about the
biodiversity we see today Relatedness is determined by a
number of things:
Morphology
Physiology
Biochemistry
Determining Types of Characteristics
Morphology
Relatedness
- Form and structure
Physiology
- Function
Biochemistry
- Genetic makeup
Terms to Know Homologous Structures
- Similar structures with
common ancestry; does not
always have a similar function
Analogous Structures
- Similar functions with
different forms/structures
Vestigial Structures
- Structures present in current
form that do not perform vital
functions
All living things are related and share a single common ancestor
Visualizing the Tree of that existed approximately 3.9 billion years ago.
Life Since the beginning of life, there have been hundreds of
thousands (possibly millions) of different organisms that have
lived on our planet
What we do know about these organisms, we’ve used to
construct a tree displaying the relationships between these
organisms and those we see today
Cladograms Cladograms are used to show how organisms are related
and have evolved over time.
They use “nodes” to denote the beginning of a new
characteristic (i.e. eggs, hair, milk production, etc.)
Each “node” represents a common ancestor that may or
may not be identifiable
The Animal Kingdom So what are animals? If we were suddenly confronted with
an animal we had never seen in our lives before, how would
we know it was not a plant or even a fungus? We all
intuitively know part of the answer to this.
Animals:
• eat organic material (plants or other animals) • move to
find food
• take the food into their bodies and then digest it • and most
reproduce by fertilizing eggs by sperm
If you were tempted to add that animals are furry, run
around on four legs and give birth to young that they feed
on milk you were thinking only of mammals and forgetting
temporarily that frogs, snakes and crocodiles, birds as well
as fish, are also animals.
These are all members of the group called the vertebrates
(or animals with a backbone) and mammals make up only
about 8% of this group. The diagram on the next page
shows the percentage of the different kinds of vertebrates.
The Classification Of As we have seen above the Vertebrates are divided into 5
groups or classes namely:
Vertebrates • Fish
• Amphibia (frogs and toads)
• Reptiles (snakes and crocodiles)
• Birds
• Mammals
These classes are all based on similarities. For instance all
mammals have a similar skeleton, hair on their bodies, are
warm bodied and suckle their young.
The class Mammalia (the mammals) contains 3 subclasses:
• Duck billed platypus and the spiny anteater
• Marsupials (animals like the kangaroo with pouches)
• True mammals (with a placenta)
Within the subclass containing the true mammals, there are
groupings called orders that contain mammals that are more
closely similar or related, than others.
Examples of six mammalian orders aregiven below:
• Rodents (Rodentia) (rats and mice)
• Carnivores (Carnivora) (cats, dogs, bears and seals) •
Even-toed grazers (Artiodactyla) (pigs, sheep, cattle,
antelopes)
• Odd-toed grazers (Perissodactyla) (horses, donkeys,
zebras)
• Marine mammals (Cetacea) (whales, sea cows)
• Primates (monkeys, apes, humans)
Within each order there are various families. For example
within the carnivore mammals are the families:
• Canidae (dog-like carnivores)
• Felidae (cat-like carnivores)
Even at this point it is possible to find groupings that are
more closely related than others. These groups are called
genera (singular genus). For instance within the cat family
Felidae is the genus Felis containing the cats, as well as
genera containing panthers, lynxes, and sabre toothed
tigers!
The final groups within the system are the species. The
definition of a species is a group of animals that can mate
successfully and produce fertile offspring. This means that
all domestic cats belong to the species Felis domesticus,
because all breeds of cat whether Siamese, Manx or
ordinary House hold cat can cross breed. However,
domestic cats can not mate successfully with lions, tigers or
jaguars, so these are placed in separate species, e.g. Felis
leo, Felis tigris and Felis onca
To summarise, the classification system consists of:
The Animal Kingdom which is divided into
Phyla which are divided into
Classes which are divided into
Orders which are divided into
Families which are divided into
Genera which are divided into
Species.
Any questions? Or
Clarifications?
THANK YOU!
