I teach Invertebrate Zoology (EFB 355) and Principles of Evolution (EFB 311) in the Spring Semester. The former is an intensive journey through most of animal diversity, and includes a hands-on lab. The latter is a large lecture course where we explore the patterns and processes that have shaped and are shaping life throughout geologic time (and presently!). Please see detailed descriptions and extra-curricular reading lists for both of these courses, below (scroll to the end for Evolution). The reading lists I've provided are intended to whet your appetite for these fascinating—yet massive—courses.
I also co-teach a graduate seminar in Invertebrate Conservation (EFB 797) and lead the ESF & Syracuse University joint Evolution Discussion Group (EDG).
I also co-teach a graduate seminar in Invertebrate Conservation (EFB 797) and lead the ESF & Syracuse University joint Evolution Discussion Group (EDG).
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Fossil field trips to the local Middle Devonian Period are important parts of both my Invertebrate Zoology and Evolution courses at ESF. Lots of fun, and fossils to take home!
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Invertebrate Zoology (EFB 355)
Curious octopus in Belau (Republic of Palau). Photo: D. Mulroney & R. Rundell
Course Overview
This course is a detailed comparative survey of some of the weirdest and most diverse animals on Earth: the invertebrates (with a focus on marine lineages). We will explore these fascinating organisms using the following major themes of zoology to guide us: phylogeny, functional and comparative morphology, physiology, ecology, development and life history. Because this field is so enormous, we will barely scratch the surface in a 4-unit course. Be prepared for a challenging, intriguing, and frequently overwhelming journey through invertebrate organisms.
Objectives
The objectives of this course are to (1) introduce you to these bizarre and unfamiliar organisms and how they live, work and reproduce; (2) provide you with a detailed understanding and appreciation of animal diversity and the remarkable evolutionary innovations of marine invertebrates; (3) provide you with a deeper understanding of the major themes of zoology (above), through the lens of marine invertebrate evolution; (4) provide you with a solid foundation in marine invertebrate biology that will allow you to make informed decisions on marine conservation and environmental policy, and/or help you move forward with biological (and biomedical) research, educational or natural history interpretation applications.
Our exploration of each group of animals will involve assimilating large amounts of factual information and terminology, which you will learn to integrate into ideas and concepts, using the broad themes above (e.g. phylogeny, functional morphology, physiology, development, life history, ecology). The lecture portion of the course will involve a densely-packed zoological exploration of all of the major groups of invertebrates as well as interludes of data from the primary literature and forays into special topics as they relate to the organisms under discussion. Lab periods will involve the hands-on application of knowledge acquired in lecture, as well as additional topics not covered in lecture.
This course is a detailed comparative survey of some of the weirdest and most diverse animals on Earth: the invertebrates (with a focus on marine lineages). We will explore these fascinating organisms using the following major themes of zoology to guide us: phylogeny, functional and comparative morphology, physiology, ecology, development and life history. Because this field is so enormous, we will barely scratch the surface in a 4-unit course. Be prepared for a challenging, intriguing, and frequently overwhelming journey through invertebrate organisms.
Objectives
The objectives of this course are to (1) introduce you to these bizarre and unfamiliar organisms and how they live, work and reproduce; (2) provide you with a detailed understanding and appreciation of animal diversity and the remarkable evolutionary innovations of marine invertebrates; (3) provide you with a deeper understanding of the major themes of zoology (above), through the lens of marine invertebrate evolution; (4) provide you with a solid foundation in marine invertebrate biology that will allow you to make informed decisions on marine conservation and environmental policy, and/or help you move forward with biological (and biomedical) research, educational or natural history interpretation applications.
Our exploration of each group of animals will involve assimilating large amounts of factual information and terminology, which you will learn to integrate into ideas and concepts, using the broad themes above (e.g. phylogeny, functional morphology, physiology, development, life history, ecology). The lecture portion of the course will involve a densely-packed zoological exploration of all of the major groups of invertebrates as well as interludes of data from the primary literature and forays into special topics as they relate to the organisms under discussion. Lab periods will involve the hands-on application of knowledge acquired in lecture, as well as additional topics not covered in lecture.
Jellies move through outer space in one of the famous Jellyfish Lakes of Belau (Republic of Palau). Photo: D. Mulroney & R. Rundell
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Enormous sea fan at the bottom of Blue Hole in Belau (Republic of Palau). Photo: D. Mulroney & R. Rundell
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We are fortunate to have a beautiful cold water tank system for observing marine invertebrates.
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The Invert Zoo class gathers as we observe the behaviors of some marine invertebrate animals.
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Capturing invertebrate fossils together in the extinct Middle Devonian sea.
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Invert-centric Readings and Field Guides:
Abbott, RT. 1989. Compendium of landshells. American Malacologists.
Allmon, WD and B Page. 2001. Rock of Ages, Sands of Time. University of Chicago Press, Chicago. [The actual murals can be viewed at The Museum of the Earth in Ithaca, NY]
Behrens, DW and A Hermosillo. 2005. Eastern Pacific nudibranchs. Monterey: Sea Challengers.
Briggs, DEG and Crowther, PR. 2001. Paleobiology. Wiley-Blackwell.
Briggs, DEG, DH Erwin and FJ Collier. 1995.The fossils of the Burgess Shale. Smithsonian.
Brusca, RC. 1980. Common intertidal invertebrates of the Gulf of California. Second Edition. Tucson:University of Arizona Press.
Brusca, R. C. and Brusca, G. J. 2003. Invertebrates. Second Edition. Sinauer Associates, Inc., Sunderland, Massachusetts.
Carroll, SB. 2006. Endless forms most beautiful. The New Science of Evo Devo. WW Norton and Company.
Clarkson, ENK. 1999. Invertebrate paleontology and evolution. Fourth Edition. Cambridge: Blackwell Science.
Colin, PL. 2009. Marine environments of Palau. Indo Pacific Press for Coral Reef Research Foundation.
Colin, PL and C. Arneson. 1995. Tropical Pacific invertebrates. Beverly Hills: Coral Reef Press. [beautiful field guide and reference]
Corfield, R. 2003. The silent landscape: The scientific voyage of the HMS Challenger. Joseph Henry Press. [The Challenger expedition: foundation for oceanography]
Darwin, CR. 1839. Journal of the researches into the geology and natural history of the various countries visited by HMS Beagle. London: Henry Colburn. Darwin-online.org
Darwin, CR. 1842. The structure and distribution of coral reefs. London: John Murray. Darwin-online.org
Dobbs, D. 2005. Reef madness: Charles Darwin, Alexander Agassiz, and the meaning of coral. Pantheon.
Fortey, R. 2001. Trilobite: Eyewitness to evolution. Vintage. [a special fossil arthropod]
Futuyma, DJ. 1997. Evolutionary biology. Sinauer Associates. [excellent reference]
Giere, O. 2009. Meiobenthology. Berlin: Springer-Verlag. [microscopic inverts]
Gosner, KL. 1999. A field guide to the Atlantic seashore: From the Bay of Fundy to Cape Hatteras (Peterson Field Guide). Houghton Mifflin Harcourt.
Gould, SJ. 1990. Wonderful life. WW Norton and Company. [a classic and captivating book about the Cambrian Explosion and the Burgess Shale]
Harasewych, J and F Moretzsohn. 2010. The book of shells: A life-sized guide to identifying and classifying six-hundred seashells. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
Hoover, JP. 2006. Hawaii’s Sea Creatures. A Guide to Hawaii’s Marine Invertebrates. Revised Edition. Mutual Publishing.
Hupp, B and M Malone. 2008. The edge of the Sea of Cortez. Operculum LLC.
Hyman, Libbie. 1940-1967. The invertebrates. McGraw Hill. [A treatise in 6 volumes; seminal works in invertebrate zoology by the expert herself]
Kozloff, E. 1996. Marine invertebrates of the Pacific Northwest. University of Washington Press.
Lamb, A and B Hanby. 2005. Marine life of the Pacific Northwest. Harbour.
Mather, JA, RC Anderson, and JB Wood. 2010. Octopus: The ocean’s intelligent invertebrate. Timber Press.
Norse, EA, LB Crowder and ME Soule. 2005. Marine conservation biology: The science of maintaining the sea’s biodiversity. Island Press.
Nouvian, C. 2007. The deep: The extraordinary creatures of the abyss. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
Prager, E. 2011. Sex, drugs, and sea slime: The ocean’s oddest creatures and why they matter. Chicago: university of Chicago Press.
Raff, RA. 1996. The shape of life. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. [by one of the founders of the field of evo-devo; evolution of development in metazoans]
Raup, D and SM Stanley. 1978. Principles of paleontology Second Edition. WH Freeman. [a seminal work in the field]
Sheppard, CRC, SK Davy, and GM Pilling. 2009. The biology of coral reefs. Oxford University Press.
Steinbeck, J. 1951. The log from the Sea of Cortez. Penguin Classics (1995). [gripping!]
Steinbeck, J and EF Ricketts. 1941. The Sea of Cortez: A leisurely journal of travel and research. Paul P Appel Pub. (1971).
Stott, R. 2004. Darwin and the barnacle: The story of one tiny creature and history’s most spectacular scientific breakthrough. WW Norton and Co.
Strathmann, MF. 2000. Reproduction and development of marine invertebrates of the northern Pacific coast. University of Washington Press.
Treatise on invertebrate paleontology. Geological Society of America and the University of Kansas. [a definitive and evolving work in 50 volumes]
Valentine, JW. 2004. On the origin of phyla. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
Vermeij, G. 1995. A natural history of shells. Princeton: Princeton University Press.
Vermeij, G. 1998. Privileged hands: A scientific life. WH Freeman and Company. [Blind since childhood, Vermeij has become a world-renowned evolutionary biologist and mollusc specialist through his sense of touch.]
Widmer, CL. 2008. How to keep jellyfish in aquariums. Tucson: Wheatmark.
Williams, W. 2011. Kraken: The curious, exciting, and slightly disturbing science of squid. Abrams Image.
Wrobel, D and C Mills. 1998. Pacific coast pelagic invertebrates: A guide to the common gelatinous animals. Sea Challengers. [jellies, siphonophores, you name it]
Abbott, RT. 1989. Compendium of landshells. American Malacologists.
Allmon, WD and B Page. 2001. Rock of Ages, Sands of Time. University of Chicago Press, Chicago. [The actual murals can be viewed at The Museum of the Earth in Ithaca, NY]
Behrens, DW and A Hermosillo. 2005. Eastern Pacific nudibranchs. Monterey: Sea Challengers.
Briggs, DEG and Crowther, PR. 2001. Paleobiology. Wiley-Blackwell.
Briggs, DEG, DH Erwin and FJ Collier. 1995.The fossils of the Burgess Shale. Smithsonian.
Brusca, RC. 1980. Common intertidal invertebrates of the Gulf of California. Second Edition. Tucson:University of Arizona Press.
Brusca, R. C. and Brusca, G. J. 2003. Invertebrates. Second Edition. Sinauer Associates, Inc., Sunderland, Massachusetts.
Carroll, SB. 2006. Endless forms most beautiful. The New Science of Evo Devo. WW Norton and Company.
Clarkson, ENK. 1999. Invertebrate paleontology and evolution. Fourth Edition. Cambridge: Blackwell Science.
Colin, PL. 2009. Marine environments of Palau. Indo Pacific Press for Coral Reef Research Foundation.
Colin, PL and C. Arneson. 1995. Tropical Pacific invertebrates. Beverly Hills: Coral Reef Press. [beautiful field guide and reference]
Corfield, R. 2003. The silent landscape: The scientific voyage of the HMS Challenger. Joseph Henry Press. [The Challenger expedition: foundation for oceanography]
Darwin, CR. 1839. Journal of the researches into the geology and natural history of the various countries visited by HMS Beagle. London: Henry Colburn. Darwin-online.org
Darwin, CR. 1842. The structure and distribution of coral reefs. London: John Murray. Darwin-online.org
Dobbs, D. 2005. Reef madness: Charles Darwin, Alexander Agassiz, and the meaning of coral. Pantheon.
Fortey, R. 2001. Trilobite: Eyewitness to evolution. Vintage. [a special fossil arthropod]
Futuyma, DJ. 1997. Evolutionary biology. Sinauer Associates. [excellent reference]
Giere, O. 2009. Meiobenthology. Berlin: Springer-Verlag. [microscopic inverts]
Gosner, KL. 1999. A field guide to the Atlantic seashore: From the Bay of Fundy to Cape Hatteras (Peterson Field Guide). Houghton Mifflin Harcourt.
Gould, SJ. 1990. Wonderful life. WW Norton and Company. [a classic and captivating book about the Cambrian Explosion and the Burgess Shale]
Harasewych, J and F Moretzsohn. 2010. The book of shells: A life-sized guide to identifying and classifying six-hundred seashells. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
Hoover, JP. 2006. Hawaii’s Sea Creatures. A Guide to Hawaii’s Marine Invertebrates. Revised Edition. Mutual Publishing.
Hupp, B and M Malone. 2008. The edge of the Sea of Cortez. Operculum LLC.
Hyman, Libbie. 1940-1967. The invertebrates. McGraw Hill. [A treatise in 6 volumes; seminal works in invertebrate zoology by the expert herself]
Kozloff, E. 1996. Marine invertebrates of the Pacific Northwest. University of Washington Press.
Lamb, A and B Hanby. 2005. Marine life of the Pacific Northwest. Harbour.
Mather, JA, RC Anderson, and JB Wood. 2010. Octopus: The ocean’s intelligent invertebrate. Timber Press.
Norse, EA, LB Crowder and ME Soule. 2005. Marine conservation biology: The science of maintaining the sea’s biodiversity. Island Press.
Nouvian, C. 2007. The deep: The extraordinary creatures of the abyss. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
Prager, E. 2011. Sex, drugs, and sea slime: The ocean’s oddest creatures and why they matter. Chicago: university of Chicago Press.
Raff, RA. 1996. The shape of life. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. [by one of the founders of the field of evo-devo; evolution of development in metazoans]
Raup, D and SM Stanley. 1978. Principles of paleontology Second Edition. WH Freeman. [a seminal work in the field]
Sheppard, CRC, SK Davy, and GM Pilling. 2009. The biology of coral reefs. Oxford University Press.
Steinbeck, J. 1951. The log from the Sea of Cortez. Penguin Classics (1995). [gripping!]
Steinbeck, J and EF Ricketts. 1941. The Sea of Cortez: A leisurely journal of travel and research. Paul P Appel Pub. (1971).
Stott, R. 2004. Darwin and the barnacle: The story of one tiny creature and history’s most spectacular scientific breakthrough. WW Norton and Co.
Strathmann, MF. 2000. Reproduction and development of marine invertebrates of the northern Pacific coast. University of Washington Press.
Treatise on invertebrate paleontology. Geological Society of America and the University of Kansas. [a definitive and evolving work in 50 volumes]
Valentine, JW. 2004. On the origin of phyla. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
Vermeij, G. 1995. A natural history of shells. Princeton: Princeton University Press.
Vermeij, G. 1998. Privileged hands: A scientific life. WH Freeman and Company. [Blind since childhood, Vermeij has become a world-renowned evolutionary biologist and mollusc specialist through his sense of touch.]
Widmer, CL. 2008. How to keep jellyfish in aquariums. Tucson: Wheatmark.
Williams, W. 2011. Kraken: The curious, exciting, and slightly disturbing science of squid. Abrams Image.
Wrobel, D and C Mills. 1998. Pacific coast pelagic invertebrates: A guide to the common gelatinous animals. Sea Challengers. [jellies, siphonophores, you name it]
Paphiopedilum venustum, an orchid that occurs from eastern Nepal to northeastern Bangladesh. The pouch attracts nectar-seeking insects that collect or deposit pollen as they crawl out of the pouch. Photo: J. Rundell
Students in my Evolution course collecting fossils from the Middle Devonian, near Ithaca, NY.
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Orchids were of great interest to Darwin and provided important evidence of natural selection as a mechanism for evolution. Orchids have complex pollination modes. For example, some flowers mimic certain species of insects: the flower lures a male insect to "mate" with it, thus taking up pollen, or giving the flower another flower's pollen. Some orchids mimic insect pheromones to attract specific pollinators. Pictured here is a Cattleya orchid. Photo: J. Rundell
Helping each other find fossils as part of the Evolution course, near Ithaca, NY (Middle Devonian Period).
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"Sue" the _Tyrranosaurus rex_, the largest and best preserved _T. rex_ known. Sue is about 67-65.5 million years old and resides at the Field Museum in Chicago. Photo: R. Rundell
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Principles of Evolution (EFB 311)
What is evolution?
Biological (or organic) evolution is change in the properties of populations of organisms, or groups of such populations, over the course of generations. The development, or ontogeny, of an individual organism is not considered evolution: individual organisms do not evolve. The changes in populations that are considered evolutionary are those that are ‘heritable' via the genetic material from one generation to the next. Biological evolution may be slight or substantial; it embraces everything from slight changes in the proportions of different forms of a gene within a population, such as the alleles that determine the different human blood types, to the alterations that led from the earliest organism to dinosaurs, bees, snapdragons, and humans. [Douglas J. Futuyma 1998. Evolutionary Biology. p. 4. Sinauer Associates Inc. Sunderland, Mass.]
Course Overview and Objectives
In Principles of Evolution you will learn about the patterns and processes that describe and govern life on Earth. Evolution is an all-encompassing field in that every aspect of biology is touched on by evolution. For example, an organism's ecology can be critically important to its evolution, and vice versa. Indeed, "nothing in biology makes sense except in the light of evolution" (Theodosius Dobzhansky, 1973). We will explore the following major components of evolution: natural selection, adaptation, population genetics, speciation, development, biogeography, the fossil record, the tree of life, phylogenetics, and macroevolution. You will learn the major approaches and findings in the field of evolutionary biology (including findings from recent research). This course will give you the tools you need to apply evolutionary approaches to other biological fields, and better prepare you to teach this core field to others.
If you are interested in evolutionary biology, here is a short list to get you started. Coyne, Dawkins, Gould, Jones, Weiner and the annotated version of The Origin are written with a popular audience in mind (that said, Darwin's Origin was also read by a popular audience when it was published):
Coyne, JA. 2009. Why Evolution is True. Viking Penguin. New York.
Darwin, CR. 1859. On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection. J. Murray. London.
Darwin, CR (and annotated by JT Costa). 2009. The Annotated Origin: A Facsimile of the First Edition of On the Origin of Species. Belknap Press of Harvard University Press. Cambridge.
Dawkins, R. 2009. The Greatest Show on Earth. Simon & Schuster. New York.
Gould, SJ. 1989. Wonderful Life: The Burgess Shale and the Nature of History. Norton. New York.
Jones, S. 1999. Almost Like a Whale (alternate title: Darwin's Ghost: The Origin of Species Updated). Ballantine/ Doubleday. London.
Losos, JB. 2009. Lizards in an Evolutionary Tree. University of California Press. Berkeley and Los Angeles.
Price, TD. 2008. Speciation in Birds. Roberts & Company. Colorado.
Schluter, D. 2000. The Ecology of Adaptive Radiation. Oxford University Press. New York.
Weiner, J. 1994. The Beak of the Finch: The Story of Evolution in Our Time. Knopf. New York.
Biological (or organic) evolution is change in the properties of populations of organisms, or groups of such populations, over the course of generations. The development, or ontogeny, of an individual organism is not considered evolution: individual organisms do not evolve. The changes in populations that are considered evolutionary are those that are ‘heritable' via the genetic material from one generation to the next. Biological evolution may be slight or substantial; it embraces everything from slight changes in the proportions of different forms of a gene within a population, such as the alleles that determine the different human blood types, to the alterations that led from the earliest organism to dinosaurs, bees, snapdragons, and humans. [Douglas J. Futuyma 1998. Evolutionary Biology. p. 4. Sinauer Associates Inc. Sunderland, Mass.]
Course Overview and Objectives
In Principles of Evolution you will learn about the patterns and processes that describe and govern life on Earth. Evolution is an all-encompassing field in that every aspect of biology is touched on by evolution. For example, an organism's ecology can be critically important to its evolution, and vice versa. Indeed, "nothing in biology makes sense except in the light of evolution" (Theodosius Dobzhansky, 1973). We will explore the following major components of evolution: natural selection, adaptation, population genetics, speciation, development, biogeography, the fossil record, the tree of life, phylogenetics, and macroevolution. You will learn the major approaches and findings in the field of evolutionary biology (including findings from recent research). This course will give you the tools you need to apply evolutionary approaches to other biological fields, and better prepare you to teach this core field to others.
If you are interested in evolutionary biology, here is a short list to get you started. Coyne, Dawkins, Gould, Jones, Weiner and the annotated version of The Origin are written with a popular audience in mind (that said, Darwin's Origin was also read by a popular audience when it was published):
Coyne, JA. 2009. Why Evolution is True. Viking Penguin. New York.
Darwin, CR. 1859. On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection. J. Murray. London.
Darwin, CR (and annotated by JT Costa). 2009. The Annotated Origin: A Facsimile of the First Edition of On the Origin of Species. Belknap Press of Harvard University Press. Cambridge.
Dawkins, R. 2009. The Greatest Show on Earth. Simon & Schuster. New York.
Gould, SJ. 1989. Wonderful Life: The Burgess Shale and the Nature of History. Norton. New York.
Jones, S. 1999. Almost Like a Whale (alternate title: Darwin's Ghost: The Origin of Species Updated). Ballantine/ Doubleday. London.
Losos, JB. 2009. Lizards in an Evolutionary Tree. University of California Press. Berkeley and Los Angeles.
Price, TD. 2008. Speciation in Birds. Roberts & Company. Colorado.
Schluter, D. 2000. The Ecology of Adaptive Radiation. Oxford University Press. New York.
Weiner, J. 1994. The Beak of the Finch: The Story of Evolution in Our Time. Knopf. New York.
The orchid Brassocattleya binosa. All of the orchid photos seen here were taken by Jeff Rundell, a retired high school biology teacher and orchid enthusiast.
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Paphiopedilum sp. orchid. Note the large pouch for luring and guiding certain insect species to its pollen. Photo: J. Rundell
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Zygopetalum sp., an Amazonian orchid. This species is visited by male bees attracted by its fragrances. The violet coloration may help direct the bees in the low-light conditions of the rainforest. Photo: J. Rundell
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A Phalaenopsis orchid. Like most other orchids, this type of orchid is an epiphyte, meaning it grows on another plant. Photo: J. Rundell
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Phragmipedium orchid, a type of neotropical "lady's slipper" orchid. Photo: J. Rundell
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Although we tend to associate orchids with faraway tropical places, this special orchid is found in New York State. It is a "lady's slipper" orchid. This one was found in the Adirondack Mountains. Photo: J. Rundell
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