BIOL 1050 Lecture 1: Animal Diversity Overview

Lecture 1: An Overview of Animal Diversity

• BIOL*1050 course, lecture 1 on animal diversity
• Instructor: Dr. Christine Baes, Department of Animal Biosciences
• The instructor's research interests include genetics, genomics, methane emissions of livestock, and developing novel traits in livestock health, welfare, and efficiency.
• Her background includes BSc (Agr) degrees from Guelph, Moscow, and Stuttgart, MSc (Animal Welfare) from Germany, and PhD (Quantitative Genetics) from Germany.
• Current position: Department Chair, Professor, and Canada Research Chair in Livestock Genomics at the Department of Animal Biosciences, Dozentin at the University of Bern, Switzerland.
• Learning goals for the course include helping students understand the beauty of biology, providing necessary information for success in future courses, exposing students to opportunities in animal science, assisting with a successful learning journey at the University of Guelph, and the instructor surviving the first time teaching the class.
• Note-taking: The instructor recommends taking notes by hand rather than on a laptop, advocating for longhand note-taking over laptop note-taking to encourage deeper processing of information. Laptop note-takers tend to transcribe lectures verbatim, hindering learning.
• Email etiquette: Students are expected to use appropriate writing and communication skills in emails, including using proper capitalization, addressing individuals appropriately (e.g., "Dr."), and using full sentences, when appropriate. Colons and semicolons are not interchangeable.
• Exam material: All material covered in lectures, labs, and book chapters is relevant for exams, including spoken, written, and visual information.
• Defining "animals": Animals are multicellular, heterotrophic eukaryotes that possess tissues and have a history that spans more than half a billion years. Animals can be characterized by different "body plans," and new molecular and morphological data is shaping animal phylogeny.
  • Refer to pages 725-739 of Campbell Biology for additional information.

Defining Animals

• Animals are composed of groups of cells that specialize in functions.
• Animals obtain energy and nutrients by consuming other organisms.
• Animals are eukaryotes with a clearly defined nucleus and nuclear membranes with chromosomes.
• Animal tissues develop from embryonic layers (ectoderm, endoderm, and mesoderm).

Animal Development

• Early animal development—zygote undergoes cleavage
• Viviparous: Embryo develops inside parent, born as live offspring
• Oviparous: Embryo grows in egg, with nutrition from yolk
• Ovoviviparous: Egg hatches inside parent; embryo is nourished by yolk
• Homeobox genes are involved in the development and control of body structure, though Hox genes tend to be conservative but produce diverse morphologies.

Animal Evolution: Neoproterozoic Era

• The era spans one billion to 542 million years ago
• Fossils from this era (e.g., Dickinsonia costata) mark the earliest known macroscopic animals.

Animal Evolution: Paleozoic Era

(542 to 251 million years ago)

• Arthropods (invertebrate animals) first appeared on land about 450 million years ago
• Vertebrates (vertebrates) appeared approximately 365 million years ago
• Insects and plants influenced each other's evolution around 302 million years ago.

Animal Evolution: Mesozoic Era

(251 to 65.5 million years ago)

• Animal phyla spread to new habitats.
• Coral reefs formed.
• Wings evolved.
• Dinosaurs appeared.
• The first tiny mammals appeared.

Animal Evolution: Cenozoic Era

(65.5 million years ago to the present)

• A mass extinction of terrestrial and marine animals occurred.
• Large, non-flying dinosaurs and marine reptiles disappeared.
• Large, mammalian herbivores and predators ascended.
• Global climate cooled.

Additional Concepts

• "Body Plans": Animals have diversified morphologies, but they can be classified by their body plans, which are relatively few.
• Symmetry: Radial symmetry (e.g., jellyfish) and bilateral symmetry (e.g., lobsters).
• Tissues: Ectoderm, endoderm, and mesoderm.
• Body Cavities: Coelom (fluid-filled space), hemocoel (cavity between endoderm and mesoderm filled with hemolymph) and compact, no body cavities.
• Protostome and Deuterostome Development: Protostomes develop mouths first, deuterostomes develop anuses first.
• Animal Phylogeny: The evolutionary relationships among animals; views of the phylogeny continue to evolve.
• Important surveys: Order and true/false surveys using Poll Everywhere are crucial for engagement and evaluating prior knowledge.

This quiz covers the first lecture of the BIOL*1050 course, focusing on animal diversity as presented by Dr. Christine Baes. Gain insights into the beauty of biology and explore the various opportunities in animal science through her expertise in genetics and livestock welfare.