PREV

• Week 1: The nature and origin of life: Evidence of evolution (molecular, embryological & paleontological).
• Week 2: Theories of Evolution: Theories to explain the diversity of life - Modern synthetic theory
• Week 3: Factors initiating elementary evolutionary changes (micro-evolution) by changing gene frequencies, mutation pressure, selection pressure, immigration and crossbreeding, genetic drift.
• Week 4: Role of isolation in evolution: Factors of large evolutionary changes (macro/mega evolution) - allometry, orthogenesis, adaptive radiation
• Week 5: Modern concept of Natural Selection: Levels of selection, selection patterns, laboratory, and field example regarding the action of Natural Selection.
• Week 6: The action of Natural Selection leading to convergence, radiation, regression and extinction
• Week 7: Sexual selection: Darwin’s concept, Fisher’s view, Zahavi’s handicap theory, Recapitulation theory, Trend and rates in evolution.
• Week 8: mportance and applications of systematics: Taxonomy in Animal science, systematics as a profession and its future perspectives.
• Week 9: Midterm exams
• Week 10: History of taxonomy: systematics, basic terminology of systematic.
• Week 11: Theories of biological classifications
• Week 12: Taxonomic characters: Kinds and weightage, microtaxonomy, taxonomic categories: specific category, infraspecific category, higher categories.
• Week 13: Typological species concept: Nominalistic species concept, biological species concept, Evolutionary species concept.
• Week 14: Kinds of different species, Speciation,Taxonomic procedures, taxonomic collection; their preservation and duration.
• Week 15: Taxonomic keys, different kinds of keys and their merits and demerits.
• Week 16: Systematics publications: International code of zoological nomenclature; its objective, principles, interpretation, application of important rules.
• Week 17: Zoological nomenclature, law of priority and validity of names. Presentations