BIOL 2290 - 3 EVOLUTION OF ANIMAL BODY PLANS (3,0,3) Winter 2020

Instructor: Dr. Louis Gosselin Office: Research Centre RC203 Email: [email protected]

Course website: www.faculty.tru.ca/lgosselin/biol2290/

Meeting times Lectures: Mon 8:30 - 9:45 [AE 162] Wed 8:30 - 9:45 [AE 162] Laboratories - 3 hours per week [S 378]

Calendar description This course explores the spectacular diversity of animal body plans, and examines the sequence of events that lead to this diversity. Lectures and laboratories emphasize the inherent link between body form, function and phylogeny. The course also highlights the diverse roles that animals play in natural ecosystems as well as their implications for humans, and examines how knowledge of animal morphology, development, and molecular biology allows us to reconstruct the phylogenetic tree of the Animalia.

Educational objectives Upon successful completion of this course, students will be able to identify the major evolutionary events that lead to the current diversity of animal body plans, and the selective pressures that favoured each type of body plan. They will be able to recognize the functional significance of animal body design, relating morphology with specific lifestyles. Students will be able to describe the major functions that animals play in natural ecosystems and the significance of different animals for humans. In addition, students successfully completing the laboratory component of the course will be skilled in dissection techniques, identification, and in the basic design, execution and analysis of a scientific experiment with animals.

Prerequisites BIOL1110, BIOL1210

Required texts Ruppert EE, Fox RS, Barnes RD (2004) Invertebrate Zoology. 7th edition. Saunders College Publishing TRU BIOL 2290 lab manual. L. Gosselin BIOL 2290: Evolution of Animal Body Plans Winter '20

Student evaluation Midterm lecture exam 25% Midterm laboratory exam 12.5% Final lecture exam 35% Final laboratory exam 12.5% Lab quizzes & assignments 15%

Academic honesty All students are expected to abide by TRU's policy regarding cheating, academic misconduct, fabrication and plagiarism, as described in the TRU Academic Integrity Policy (available at: www.tru.ca/__shared/assets/ed05-05657.pdf ).

Course schedule The following is a list of the topics to be covered during the semester.

Dates Week Main lecture topics Laboratory activities

Jan 6 - 10 1 Reconstructing animal phylogeny No lab activity

The first metazoans Relationship between Functional consequences of body size Jan 13 - 17 2 protozoans & metazoans Diversification of body plans and the Metazoan early development Cambrian explosion

The simplest body plans: The Parazoa Constraints on animal size Jan 20 - 24 3 Introduction to the Eumetazoa Body support

Functional significance of body symmetry Parazoa & Radiata body plans Jan 27 - 31 4 Radiata Porifera & Cnidaria Cnidaria and Ctenophora

Bilateria Platyhelminthes & Nemertea The parasitic lifestyle: opportunities & Body symmetry Feb 3 - 7 5 constraints Platyhelminthes Achieving efficiency in a larger body: digestive, circulatory & respiratory systems

Internal body cavity: The coelom Feb 10 - 14 6 Mollusca Mollusca Midterm lecture exam: Wed, Feb 12

Feb 17 - 21 Midterm break L. Gosselin BIOL 2290: Evolution of Animal Body Plans Winter '20

Segmentation; segmentation; segmentation;... Feb 24 - 28 7 Annelida Midterm lab exam The ubiquitous vermiform body design Nematoda & Nematomorpha

Gnathifera Rotifera (small is beautiful!) The coelom, segmentation & Mar 2 - 6 8 Cryptobiosis tagmatization Panarthropoda Annelida Tardigrada

Nematoda The arthropod exoskeleton & arthropod The arthropod body plan Mar 9 - 13 9 radiation Arthropoda I: Trilobitomorpha Arthropoda & Chelicerata

Lophophorate animals Bryozoa & Brachiopoda Arthropoda II: Crustacea & Mar 16 - 20 10 Protostome - Deuterostome Radiation Tracheata The water-vascular system Echinodermata

The water-vascular system Almost chordates: Hemichordata Echinodermata The chordate body plan Mar 23 - 27 11 The chordate body plan Chordata: Urochordata & Chordata I: Urochordata & Cephalochordata Cephalochordata

Mar 30 - The vertebrate body plan The vertebrate body plan 12 Apr 3 Chordata: Craniata/Vertebrata Chordata II: Vertebrata

Chordata: Craniata/Vertebrata (cont'd) Apr 6 - 10 13 Final lab exam The colonization of land by animals

Apr 14 - 25 14-15 Final lecture exam: TBA