BIOL 220
Advanced Systematics
The earth hosts an enormous amount of diversity of life forms. The goal of Systematics is to define natural groups (= species) and investigate the processes that best explains the formation and diversity of species.
In this course, questions such as:
1. How do biologists distinguish and categorize Earth’s diverse life forms?
2. How has life on Earth changed over time?
3. What causes the similarities and differences among Earth’s many different species?
4. What mechanisms can cause the evolution of populations?
5. How do new species originate from existing species?
will be addressed to help students define and evaluate what constitutes a natural group and explain the processes that drives the formation and diversity of species.
For a biology student, answering these questions is integral to understand science from a different and broader perspective. Many biological studies (e.g., ecology, evolution, genetics, botany, anatomy) as well as, research in technology and industry (i.e., food, textiles, drugs and medicine development) rely on species identity and phylogeny. Thus, defining species and the evaluating the mechanisms that best explains the origin of species is essential to understand life and nature and impacts society in general.
This course emphasizes the utilization of evaluative tools, i.e., data types (morphological and molecular), model systems, statistical methods, spatial (continental versus island) and temporal perspectives to augment and enrich discussion in addressing the core questions in Systematics.
- Teacher: Archie Along
- Teacher: Jeszianlenn L. Plaza