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Reading/discussion assignments
Objectives
Other handouts/assignments
Miscellaneous links

Link to:

Syllabus
Webpage for textbook
 
 

Reading/discussion assignments

Be prepared to discuss in class on the listed date.  Recognize, however, that we may get behind in schedule and have to put off discussions until the following week.
4 February
Lebedev, O. A. 1997. Fins made for walking. Nature 390:21-22.
Day, J. J., D. B. Norman, P. Upchurch, and H. P. Powell. 2002. Dinosaur locomotion from a new trackway. Nature 415:494-495.
25 February
Alexander, R. McNeill. 2001. Damper for bad vibrations. Nature 414:855-856.
Neyt, C., K. Jagla, C. Thisse, B. Thisse, L. Haines, and P.D. Currie. Evolutionary origins of vertebrate appendicular muscle.
     Nature 408:82-85. (You don't need to read this one before class, but we will discuss it briefly during class).
Wilson, A. M., M. P. McGuigan, A. Su, and A. J. van den Bogert. 2001. Horses damp the spring in their step. Nature
     414:895-899.  (Skim this one - we will mainly discuss the review of the paper by Alexander).
21 April
Clark, D. A., P.A. Mitra, S. S.-H. Wang. 2001. Scalable architecture in mammalian brains. Nature 411:189-193. (Try to figure out what influences relative size of different brain regions, especially cerebrum and cerebellum).
Witmer, L. M. 2004. Inside the oldest bird brain. Nature 430:619-620. (How did the researchers know it  could fly?)  Main article is Nature 430:666-669, if you want to read it.

Objectives
The following set of objectives will cover most (90%+) of what will be on the exam.  Some exam questions may appear that come from lecture material not discussed on the objective list.
By examination time you should be able to:

Set 1
Set 2
Set 3
Set 4

Links for assignments

 link to root words

  Jaw protrusion animation1
  Jaw protrusion animation2
  Jaw protrusion animation3 This is a version of animation2 that has audio.  Takes a while to load.

The Frogfish Color photos and biology of frogfishes.
Ichthyosaur Page Ryosuke Motani's delightful webpage

Miscellaneous links and info

Chordate diversity
Arizona Tree of Life: Chordata
Introduction to the Vertebrates  UCMP

Embryology
Neurulation and Optic Cup formation  Developmental biology pics and images, compiled by Bill Wasserman, Loyola Univ.

Integumentary system
The integument and its derivatives  An on-line lab by Sandra Millen, Univ. of British Columbia that closely parallels our own lab

Skeleton
Digimorph NSF Digital morphology at Univeristy of Austin, Texas.  Has incredible digitized images of skull and other skeletal material.  Movies allow you to rotate skull or look at slices.  Wow!
Temporal fenestration and the classification of amniotes From University of Arizona Tree of Life pages
Salamander walking  Animation showing shift in locomotion from swimming to walking

Muscles
Cat muscle practice Quiz  Use this to practice cat muscle IDs.  Note that I have not checked the key for accuracy!
Somite lineages - Chick somite lineages.  (Nothing from the head).

Craniopharyngeal structures
Development of the Neck and Head  Animation of neural crest cells, lots of head sections, developmental abnormalities, good text summaries
Branchial Cleft Sinus  Images of cervical fistulas, canals in the neck that result when the second branchial pouch erupts to the outside.

Digestive and Respiratory derivatives
Salamander feeding movies  Great high-speed movies of salamanders feeding by Stephen Deban
Bird lung animation  A picture is worth a thousand words.

Circulatory
Cat anatomy  Quiz yourself with cat blood vessels and sheep hearts.
Amphioxus song  A wonderful little song by Philip Pope dedicated to the amphioxus, an animal that gives us great insight into the evolution of vertebrate blood vessel pathways.

Urogenital

Nervous system
Sheep brain  Interactive quizzes for sheep eye and brain and major cat nerves.
Sheep brain  Another interactive (and very nice) guide to the sheep brain.
Mammalian Brain Evolution  Cool site of morphology and evolution of mammalian brains