BIOSM 3770 - [Field Biology of Marine Fishes]

Summer. 3 credits.

Prerequisite: one semester of college-level biology or equivalent. Recommended prerequisite: background in vertebrate biology. Next offered 2014-2015. Offered in Maine at Shoals Marine Laboratory on Appledore Island.

Staff.

Intensive lecture, laboratory, and field course. Lectures cover the basic anatomy and physiology of fishes with examples drawn from a wide variety of fishes from throughout the world. The course emphasizes the diversity of fishes in two aspects, diversity of evolutionary solutions to problems faced by fishes and the great diversity of different types of fishes that inhabit the world. Laboratory exercises cover the anatomy and osteology of teleost fishes and identification of local species. Each student selects a different local species of teleost fish to study and dissect and prepares a comprehensive paper on its morphology, soft anatomy, and osteology.