Agricultural Zoology

1. Introduction to Agricultural Zoology
Norelie O. ibacarra, DVM

2. About the course:
COURSE NUMBER: AG BIO 3
COURSE TITLE: AGRICUTURAL ZOOLOGY
COURSE OUTLINE
The course study the concept of Zoology involving theoretical and laboratory experiences.
Studentsare expected to understand and learn the science perspective, attributes, composition
and complexity ofliving organisms. Laboratory work is an integral part of the course, involves
performances of exercises
and dissection. Credit Units: 4
Number of Hours: 90
Semester Offered: 1st Semester
COURSE OBJECTIVES:
1. Understand the general principles that unite animal biology.
2. Appreciate the diversity fiound in the animal kingdom and understand the
evolutionaryrelationships that explain the diversity. 3. Become familiar with the structure and
function of vertebrate organ system.

3. Unit I: Biological
Principles and the
Science of Zoology
Lesson Objectives
1. Define zoology, animal diversity, and enumerate its
branches
2. Explain the importance of taxonomy and variation
among animal populations.
3. Become familiar with scientific method to carry out
an experiment that requires critical thinking and
analysis of data.

4. Introduction
Zoology is the branch of biology concerned with the
study animals and animal kingdom. It is also known
as animal biology. The study of zoology includes the
interaction of animal kingdom in theirecosystems
such as classification, habits, structure, embryology,
distribution, evolution, and extinctspecies.
Zoology is the division of biology that deals with the
animal kingdom. It is the scientific study related to
the entire species of the animal kingdom. The study
of zoology includes animals physiology, their
behavior, and their interaction with otherspecies in
their environment. It is a huge course that includes
the distribution of every animal species onearth
including extinct animals. Apart from the animal
kingdom and ecosystem, zoology also exploresthe
new areas of research

5. Some Branches of
Zoology
Mammalogy - the study of mammals. A popular type
of mammalogy is primatology - the study ofprimates.
Ornithology - the study of birds.
Herpetology - the study of amphibians and reptiles.
Ichthyology - the study of fish.
Entomology - the study of insects. Entomology is
itself broken down into many categories because
there are so many types of insects. Some examples
of its subcategories are Lepidopterology, the study of
butterflies and moths, Myrmecology, the study of
ants, and Coleopterology, the study of beetles.

6. TAXONOMY: THE
STUDY OF
IDENTIFICATION,
CLASSIFICATION,
AND
NOMENCLATURE
Why Classify?
Biologists group organisms based on similarities and
differences in the organisms’: -Physical
Appearance
-Genetic Makeup
-Evolutionary History
This helps to:
1. Identify organisms more efficiently
2. Study group characteristics
3. Determine relatedness

7. Taxa => Taxonomy
Domain => Kingdom => Phylum => Class => Order =>
Family => Genus =>Species
Carolus Linnaeus is responsible for the development
of binomial nomenclature—the use of the genus and
species to identify an organisms
Rules for Nomenclature
First letter of genus is always CAPITALIZED
If printed or typed both should be italicized
If handwritten both should be underlined
After writing a scientific name completely, you can
abbreviate thereafter by using the first letter
of the genus, a period, and then the species name.

8. Scientific Name
Examples
Household Cat - Felis catus
Dogs and Wolves - Canis lupus
Lions - Panthera leo
Tigers - Panthera tigris
Humans - Homo sapiens
Neanderthals - Homo neanderthalensis
Staph - Staphylococcus aureus
E. Coli - Escherichia coli

9. Identifying
Organisms
It’s fairly easy to identify which kingdom, phylum,
and often class an organism belongs to based on
simple, often obvious, characteristics
Membrane Bound Organelles - Eukarya (Domain)
Multicellular, but lacking cell walls - Animaliae
(Kingdom)
Spinal Cord and Tails - Chordata (Phylum)
Single Tooth Replacement, live offspring -Mammalia
(Class)
Forward Facing Eyes - Primates (Order)

10. More specific characteristics, require careful
observation and are typically used to distinguish
between orders, families, genuses, and species.
Dichotomous keys are often used to determine the
exact species and genus of an organism
Use visible characteristics to determine an
organism’s identity
Characteristics are presented in pairs (i.e. Blue vs.
Not Blue)
Progressively reduces the number of potential
species
Can be presented with text or a flow chart.

11. The Tree of Life
All living things share a single, common ancestor that
evolved over millions of years to bring about the
biodiversity we see today Relatedness is determined
by a number of things:
Morphology
Physiology
Biochemistry

12. Determining
Relatedness
Types of Characteristics
Morphology
- Form and structure
Physiology
- Function
Biochemistry
- Genetic makeup

13. Terms to Know
Homologous Structures
- Similar structures with
common ancestry; does not
always have a similar function
Analogous Structures
- Similar functions with
different forms/structures
Vestigial Structures
- Structures present in current
form that do not perform vital
functions

14. Visualizing the Tree
of Life
All living things are related and share a single common
ancestor that existed approximately 3.9 billion years ago.
Since the beginning of life, there have been hundreds of
thousands (possibly millions) of different organisms that
have lived on our planet
What we do know about these organisms, we’ve used to
construct a tree displaying the relationships between
these organisms and those we see today

15. Cladograms Cladograms are used to show how organisms are
related and have evolved over time.
They use “nodes” to denote the beginning of a new
characteristic (i.e. eggs, hair, milk production, etc.)
Each “node” represents a common ancestor that may
or may not be identifiable

16. The Animal
Kingdom
So what are animals? If we were suddenly confronted
with an animal we had never seen in our lives before,
how would we know it was not a plant or even a
fungus? We all intuitively know part of the answer to
this.
Animals:
• eat organic material (plants or other animals) •
move to find food
• take the food into their bodies and then digest it •
and most reproduce by fertilizing eggs by sperm

17. If you were tempted to add that animals are furry, run
around on four legs and give birth to young that they
feed on milk you were thinking only of mammals and
forgetting temporarily that frogs, snakes and
crocodiles, birds as well as fish, are also animals.
These are all members of the group called the
vertebrates (or animals with a backbone) and
mammals make up only about 8% of this group. The
diagram on the next page shows the percentage of
the different kinds of vertebrates.

19. The Classification
Of Vertebrates
As we have seen above the Vertebrates are divided
into 5 groups or classes namely:
• Fish
• Amphibia (frogs and toads)
• Reptiles (snakes and crocodiles)
• Birds
• Mammals

20. These classes are all based on similarities. For
instance all mammals have a similar skeleton, hair on
their bodies, are warm bodied and suckle their young.
The class Mammalia (the mammals) contains 3
subclasses:
• Duck billed platypus and the spiny anteater
• Marsupials (animals like the kangaroo with
pouches)
• True mammals (with a placenta)

21. Within the subclass containing the true mammals,
there are groupings called orders that contain
mammals that are more closely similar or related,
than others.
Examples of six mammalian orders aregiven below:
• Rodents (Rodentia) (rats and mice)
• Carnivores (Carnivora) (cats, dogs, bears and seals)
• Even-toed grazers (Artiodactyla) (pigs, sheep, cattle,
antelopes)
• Odd-toed grazers (Perissodactyla) (horses, donkeys,
zebras)
• Marine mammals (Cetacea) (whales, sea cows)
• Primates (monkeys, apes, humans)

22. Within each order there are various families. For
example within the carnivore mammals are the
families:
• Canidae (dog-like carnivores)
• Felidae (cat-like carnivores)

23. Even at this point it is possible to find groupings that
are more closely related than others. These groups
are called genera (singular genus). For instance
within the cat family Felidae is the genus Felis
containing the cats, as well as genera containing
panthers, lynxes, and sabre toothed tigers!
The final groups within the system are the species.
The definition of a species is a group of animals that
can mate successfully and produce fertile offspring.
This means that all domestic cats belong to the
species Felis domesticus, because all breeds of cat
whether Siamese, Manx or ordinary House hold cat
can cross breed. However, domestic cats can not
mate successfully with lions, tigers or jaguars, so
these are placed in separate species, e.g. Felis leo,
Felis tigris and Felis onca

24. To summarise, the classification system consists of:
The Animal Kingdom which is divided into
Phyla which are divided into
Classes which are divided into
Orders which are divided into
Families which are divided into
Genera which are divided into
Species.

25. Any questions? Or
Clarifications?

26. THANK YOU!