Life Sciences

Animals in Their World: From Physiology to Behaviour

Module code: C7144
Level 5
15 credits in autumn semester
Teaching method: Seminar, Lecture, Practical
Assessment modes: Coursework, Multiple choice questions

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.

Module learning outcomes

• Demonstrate an understanding of scientific enquiry as applied to comparative animal physiology
• Demonstrate an understanding of the major concepts of comparative animal physiology
• Apply an understanding of comparative animal physiology to novel observations or data
• Synthesise existing knowledge and use it to construct a critical argument of theories on evolution and physiology.