Zoology

Information about Zoology

Zoology


Branches of Zoology
Anthrozoology Apiology Arachnology Cetology Entomology Ethology Herpetology Ichthyology Malacology Mammalogy Myrmecology Neuroethology Ornithology Paleozoology Primatology
History
pre-Darwin post-Darwin
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Zoology (from Greek: ζῴον, zoion, "animal"; and λόγος, logos, "knowledge") is the biological discipline which involves the study of animals.

Name

The pronunciation of "zoology" is /zoʊˈɑləʤɪ/, however an alternative pronunciation is /zuˈɑləʤɪ/[1].

Scope and importance of zoology

The content of zoology

The study of animal life is, of course, ancient: but as 'zoology' it is relatively modern, for what we call biology was known as 'natural history' at the start of the nineteenth century. During the lifetime of Charles Darwin natural history turned from a gentlemanly pursuit to a modern scientific activity. Zoology as we know it was first established in German and British universities. Originally quite closely connected to medical training, it gradually gained its own identity as Darwin started to answer those fundamental historical questions which had been asked before him without much success. The institution of zoology training in British universities was mainly established by Thomas Henry Huxley. His ideas were centered on the morphology of animals: he was himself the greatest comparative anatomist of the second half of the nineteenth century. His courses were composed of lectures and laboratory practical classes; and his system became widely spread.

There was much left out by Huxley, especially the study of animals in their environment, which had been the main stimulus for both Darwin and Alfred Russel Wallace (who both came up with the idea of natural selection). The fact that neither Darwin nor Wallace ever held a university teaching post may have contributed to this rather startling omission. Gradually Huxley's comparative anatomy was supplemented by other much-needed methods. The field of zoology in the twentieth century mainly comprised these approaches:
  1. Comparative anatomy studies the structure of animals.
  2. The physiology of animals is studied under various fields including anatomy and embryology
  3. The common genetic and developmental mechanisms of animals and plants is studied in molecular biology, molecular genetics and developmental biology
  4. Ethology is the study of animal behaviour.
  5. The ecology of animals is covered under behavioral ecology and other fields
  6. Evolutionary biology of both animals and plants is considered in the articles on evolution, population genetics, heredity, variation, Mendelism, reproduction.
  7. Systematics, cladistics, phylogenetics, phylogeography, biogeography and taxonomy classify and group species via common descent and regional associations.
  8. The various taxonomically-oriented disciplines such as mammalogy, herpetology, ornithology identify and classify species, and study the structures and mechanisms specific to those groups. Entomology is the study of insects, by far the largest group of animals.
  9. Palaeontology, including all that may be learnt of ancient environments.

Systems of classification

Main article: Scientific classification
Morphography includes the systematic exploration and tabulation of the facts involved in the recognition of all the recent and extinct kinds of animals and their distribution in space and time. (1) The museum-makers of old days and their modern representatives the curators and describers of zoological collections, (2) early explorers and modern naturalist travellers and writers on zoo-geography, and (3) collectors of fossils and palaeontologists are the chief varieties of zoological workers coming under this heading. Gradually, since the time of Hunter and Cuvier, anatomical study has associated itself with the more superficial morphography until today no one considers a study of animal form of any value which does not include internal structure, histology and embryology in its scope.

The real dawn of zoology after the legendary period of the Middle Ages is connected with the name of an Englishman, Edward Edward Wotton, born at Oxford in 1492, who practised as a physician in London and died in 1555. He published a treatise De differentiis animalium at Paris in 1552. In many respects Wotton was simply an exponent of Aristotle, whose teaching, - with various fanciful additions, constituted the real basis of zoological knowledge throughout the Middle Ages. It was Wotton's merit that he rejected the legendary and fantastic accretions, and returned to Aristotle and the observation of nature.

The most ready means of noting the progress of zoology during the 16th, 17th and 18th centuries is to compare Aristotle's classificatory conceptions of successive naturalists with those which are to be found in the works of Caldon.

History

Main articles: History of zoology (before Darwin) and History of zoology (since Darwin)

Notable zoologists

Main article: List of zoologists
In alphabetical order by surname:

See also

Sources and external links

At Wikiversity you can learn more and teach others about Zoology at:

References

1. ^ Zoology. Dictionary.com. Retrieved on 26 April, 2007.


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General subfields within biology
Anatomy - Astrobiology - Biochemistry - Bioinformatics - Botany - Cell biology - Ecology - Developmental biology - Evolutionary biology - Genetics - Genomics - Marine biology - Human biology - Microbiology - Molecular biology - Origin of life - Paleontology - Parasitology - Pathology - Physiology - Taxonomy - Zoology
Anthrozoology is the study of human-animal interaction ("animal" referring to all non-human animals), also described as the science focusing on all aspects of the human-animal bond.
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Apiology (from Greek: api, "bee"; and λόγος, logos, "knowledge") is the scientific study of bees, a branch of entomology. Bees are often chosen as a study group to answer questions on the evolution of social systems.
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Arachnology (from Greek: αραχνη, arachne, "spider"; and λόγος, logos, "knowledge") is the scientific study of spiders and related organisms such as scorpions, pseudoscorpions, harvestmen, collectively
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Cetology (from Greek: κητος, cetus, "whale"; and λόγος, logos, "knowledge") is the branch of marine mammal science that studies the approximately eighty species of whales, dolphins, and porpoise in the
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Entomology, from the Greek: entomo-/εντομο- "that which is cut in pieces or engraved/segmented", hence "insect"; and logos/λόγος, "knowledge",[1] is the scientific study of insects.
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Ethology (from Greek: ήθος, ethos, "custom"; and λόγος, logos, "knowledge") is the scientific study of animal behavior, and a branch of zoology.
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Herpetology (from greek: 'ερπετόν, "creeping animal" and λόγος, logos, "knowledge") is the branch of zoology concerned with the study of reptiles and amphibians.
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Ichthyology (from Greek: ἰχθυ, ikhthu, "fish"; and λόγος, logos, "knowledge") is the branch of zoology devoted to the study of fish.
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Malacology is the branch of invertebrate zoology which deals with the study of mollusks, the second-largest phylum of animals in terms of described species.[1] One division of malacology, conchology, is devoted to the study of shelled mollusks.
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In zoology, mammalogy is the study of mammals – a class of vertebrates with characteristics such as homeothermic metabolism, fur, four-chambered hearts, and complex nervous systems.
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Myrmecology is the scientific study of ants, a branch of entomology. The ant, its habits, behaviours and society have long fascinated man. Ancient Judaic and Greek moral tales both show that these societies had observed the behaviour of ants and related it to that of people.
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Not to be confused with neurotheology.


Neuroethology is a branch of neuroscience that emphasizes the study of neural mechanisms of natural behavior.
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Ornithology (from Greek: ορνισ, ornis, "bird"; and λόγος, logos, "knowledge") is the branch of zoology concerned with the study of birds.
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Paleozoology, also spelled as palaeozoology (Greek: paleon = old and zoon = animal), is the branch of paleontology or paleobiology dealing with the recovery and identification of multicellular animal remains from geological (or even archeological)
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Primatology is the study of primates. It is a diverse discipline and primatologists can be found in departments of biology, anthropology, psychology and many others.
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history of zoology before the theory of evolution proposed by Charles Darwin in 1859.

Pre-scientific zoology

Humans have been fascinated by the other members of the animal kingdom throughout history.
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This article considers the history of zoology in the years up to 1912, since the theory of evolution by natural selection proposed by Charles Darwin in 1859.
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Biology (from Greek: βίος, bio, "life"; and λόγος, logos, "knowledge"), also referred to as the biological sciences, is the scientific study of life.
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Agriculture and forestry

  • Agronomy
  • Animal science
  • Agrology
  • Environmental science
  • Agricultural economics
  • Aquaculture

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Natural history or (in Latin) Naturalis Historia is the scientific study of plants or animals.

Natural History may also refer to:

In science and medicine:
  • Natural History (Pliny), Naturalis Historia

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Charles Robert Darwin

At the age of 51, Charles Darwin had just published On the Origin of Species.
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Thomas Henry Huxley

Huxley in a Woodburytype print by Lock & Whitfield, London 1880 or earlier
Born 4 May 1825(1825--)
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Alfred Russel Wallace

Alfred Russel Wallace
Born 8 January 1823(1823--)
Usk, Monmouthshire, Wales
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Natural selection is the process by which favorable traits that are heritable become more common in successive generations of a population of reproducing organisms, and unfavorable traits that are heritable become less
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Comparative anatomy is the study of similarities and differences in the anatomy of organisms. It is closely related to evolutionary biology and phylogeny (the evolution of species).
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Physiology (from Greek: φυσις, physis, “nature, origin”; and λόγος, logos, "knowledge") is the study of the mechanical, physical, and biochemical functions of living organisms.
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Anatomy (from the Greek ἀνατομία anatomia, from ἀνατέμνειν
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Embryology is the study of the development of an embryo. An embryo is defined as any vertebrate in a stage before birth or hatching. Embryology refers to the development of the egg cell (zygote) after fertilization and the differentiation of cells into tissues and organs.
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Genetics is the science of heredity and variation in living organisms.[1][2] Knowledge of the inheritance of characteristics has been implicitly used since prehistoric times for improving crop plants and animals through selective breeding.
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