- Docente: Maurizio Lazzari
- Credits: 7
- SSD: BIO/06
- Language: Italian
- Teaching Mode: Traditional lectures
- Campus: Bologna
- Corso: First cycle degree programme (L) in Biological Sciences (cod. 8012)
Learning outcomes
This course provides students with the basic knowledge in vertebrate anatomy and biology from both functional and evolutionary points of view. Students also gain knowledge about fundamental steps in vertebrate development from fertilization to organogenesis. The students will be able to describe the vertebrate structures and relate morphology, funcion and evolution.
Course contents
- The comparative methods in morphology; homology, analogy.
- Chordates: characteristics of urochordates and cephalochordates
- Characteristics of vertebrates; phylogeny and classification.
- Agnathans (ostracoderms and cyclostomes), placoderms, chondrichthyans, acanthodians, bony fishes, amphibians, reptiles, birds and mammals.
- Embryonic development of cephalochordates, amphibians and birds.
- The extraembryonic membranes.
- The integument; the vertebrate color.
- The skeletal system: the skull, the axial skeleton, the appendicular skeleton.
- The central and peripheral nervous systems.
- The autonomic nervous system
- Sensory organs.
- The respiratory system: gills and lungs.
- The circulatory system: the heart, arterial vessels, venous vessels. Fetal circulation in placental mammals.
- The urinary system.
- The reproductive system.
- The digestive system: the buccal cavity and the alimentary canal.
Laboratory:
Description and recognition of microscopic and macroscopic specimens from embryonic and adult vertebrates
Readings/Bibliography
KF Liem, WE Bemis, WF Walker e L Grande, Anatomia Comparata dei
Vertebrati. Una visione funzionale ed evolutiva, EdiSES, Napoli,
2002
KV Kardong, Vertebrati. Anatomia comparata, funzione, evoluzione,
McGraw-Hill, Milano, 2005
GC Kent, Anatomia Comparata dei Vertebrati, Seconda Edizione,
Piccin, Padova, 1997
------------------------------
G Minelli e P Del Grande, Atlante di Anatomia dei Vertebrati,
Piccin, Padova, 1983
------------------------------
C Houillon, Embriologia dei Vertebrati, Seconda Edizione, Casa
Editrice Ambrosiana, Milano, 1992
R Franquinet e J Foucrier, Atlante di Embriologia Descrittiva,
EdiSES, Napoli, 2004
Teaching methods
Lectures and exercises
Assessment methods
Written and oral assessment
Teaching tools
PC and video projector
Office hours
See the website of Maurizio Lazzari