Animals in Their World: From Physiology to Behaviour (C7144)

15 credits, Level 5

Autumn teaching

This module asks how an animal's morphology and physiology are adapted to its environment and ecology.

You will explore how a range vertebrates and invertebrates have overcome problems of energy supply, and how they regulate their water balance, temperature and other aspects of their internal environment. You will also consider how animals sense their environment and move through it.

Explore the key principles by which morphological features and physiological systems have evolved. You’ll discover how solutions can be remarkably similar in distantly related animals (indicating convergent evolution), but also diverge in closely related species.

Teaching

69%: Lecture
25%: Practical
6%: Seminar

Assessment

50%: Coursework (Essay)
50%: Examination (Multiple choice questions)

Contact hours and workload

This module is approximately 150 hours of work. This breaks down into about 26 hours of contact time and about 124 hours of independent study. The University may make minor variations to the contact hours for operational reasons, including timetabling requirements.

We regularly review our modules to incorporate student feedback, staff expertise, as well as the latest research and teaching methodology. We’re planning to run these modules in the academic year 2024/25. However, there may be changes to these modules in response to feedback, staff availability, student demand or updates to our curriculum.

We’ll make sure to let you know of any material changes to modules at the earliest opportunity.