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Welcome to Invertebrates 2203 Invertebrate Zoology, ANIM2203, introduces the wide range of invertebrates in such a way that students should:
 * - Be able to recognize, on sight, representatives of the major phyla.
 * - Understand the phyletic relationships between the common forms.
 * - Know what literature to turn to help in your later professional life.

So, why study invertebrates?
 * - Invertebrates constitute an amazing range of diverse and beautiful animals.
 * - They present an amazing diversity of structures, i.e. of solutions for living, which pose an exciting intellectual challenge to m master.
 * - Knowledge of their relationships is not fixed: currently they are the focus of much systematic study integrating systematic a and molecular approaches.
 * - Knowledge of them is important for a wide range of post-university professional careers.

In this auspicious year of the 200th anniversary of the birth of Charles Darwin, and perhaps equally auspicious year of the 150th anniversary of the ‘birth’ of “The Origin of Species…”, it is worthwhile to reflect on the relevance of the ‘Theory of Evolution’ for ANIM2203. Evolutionary thinking is the major intellectual thread underpinning modern biology so that no longer is it necessary to learn the characteristics defining each phylum. Instead, learning to work efficiently and constructively with the cladograms in the modern invertebrate zoological texts, the demand for rote-learning of vast pages of lists of characteristics becomes completely redundant.

However, throughout the labs you will be exposed to a wide range of animals and must be able to recognise not only what they are but to identify their important organs.

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