WELCOME%20TO%20HERPETOLOGY

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WELCOME TO HERPETOLOGY

• GOAL To provide students with a basic
  understanding of the
• biology of amphibians and reptiles. Provide
  students
• with an opportunity to gain experience handling
  and
• working with these animals.
• WHY ARE YOU IN HEREE-mail me a short note.
• GRADING
• Regular Scale
• I decide tweeners
• 3 exams (take-home)300pts
• Class project (shared credit with lab)75 pts
• Participation25
• Lecture400 Points Total
• Lab Lecture are Separate

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CLASS PROJECT
Use of Retaining Ponds In Terre Haute by Wildlife

• Why?
• Grand Canyon Effect
• Wetlands are the Second-most damaged habitat in
  NA
• Prairies 1
• Drained for Farming
• Many Species are Dependent or Facultative Users
• Most research focuses on natural or management
  wetlands
• Little effort on accidental wetlands
• Retaining ponds are common
• My recent research
• Urban Ecology
• Kansas Tailwater Pits
• Plainfield Warehouse District

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CLASS PROJECT Whats a Retaining Pond?
Use of Retaining Ponds In Terre Haute by Wildlife
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Use of Retaining Ponds In Terre Haute by Wildlife

• Why us?
• Good Class Size
• Avoids Busy Work
• Experiential Learning
• Learn How to Collaborate
• What is the Last Step of a Research Project?
• What needs to be done?
• Standardize Sampling Regime
• Pick a Number of Ponds
• Identify Potential Ponds Using GIS
• Get Permission
• Literature Review
• Develop IACUC
• Sample Ponds
• Compare to Sandcut Ponds

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Use of Retaining Ponds In Terre Haute by Wildlife

• Will we have time?
• Lecture During the Cold
• Sample When Warm
• Daily Trap Checks (Independent Times)
• Intense Searches During Lab
• Summer Credit?
• 8 People
• Probably Need to Finish Paper After the Semester
• When do we Start?Right Now
• Identify Potential Ponds Using GIS
• Get Permission
• Literature Review
• Progress meeting in Lab
• Begin Sampling with Spring Thaw

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Use of Retaining Ponds In Terre Haute by Wildlife

• Why Wildlife Not Just Herps?
• Better Chance of Publication
• Monophyletic Approach
• Better Experience
• Whats in it for me?
• First Paper
• Wide Variety of Experience
• Should be Fun
• Lecture Out of the Way
• Take a Break During the Spring
• Other Option are Independent Papers Formal Labs

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CLASS STARTS HERE

• What is This Monophyletic Approach Crap?
• How do you describe a group of organisms?
• FunctionCarnivors, Herbivores
• PhysiologyEndo vs Ectotherms
• Overall AppearanceThings w/o legs
• Evolutionary Relationship--Systematics
• Monophyletic groups are based on evolved
  relationships
• Systematics vs Taxonomy
• Taxonomythe name game
• Very legalistic
• Rules of Nomenclature
• Skilled Identifications
• Systematicsstudy of evolutionary relationships
• In practice, they are usually the same.
• Arent all taxonomic groups monophyletic?

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The old class Reptilia is not Monophyletic

• 1. Paraphyletic A set of Ancestors and
  Descendents Missing some of the Descendents
• 2.
•  
• a. Very Similar to Human Families
• b. The "Black Sheep" Phenomena
• c. Evolutionary/Ecological Grades
• d. Who is in the red?

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REPTILIA MAY BE POLYPHYLETIC
Polyphyletic Most recent common Ancestor is in
another group
Family where you claim the cousins, but not your
grandparents
Did all reptiles arise from 1 amphibian
offshoot? Mammal-Like Reptiles vs Reptile like
Mammals?
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MONOPHYLETIC An ancestor and all of its
descendents.
a. most preferred resolution b. requi
res perfect resolution c. requires perfect
knowledge d. Taxonomy is a tool How
useful is it e. Return to Evolutionary
Grade f. Ecological Milestones Birds and
flight
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How do we examine evolutionary relationships? 1.
Traditional Evolutionary Systematics a.
expert based b. more art than science 2.
Phenetics a. developed from numerical
taxonomy b. poorly accepted at first 1.
Criticism of TES 2. Pure taxonomy 3.
Later adherents used for evolutionary work 4.
Modern techniques somewhat unfairly
maligned c. based on OVERALL
SIMILARITY 3. Cladistics Based on SHARED
DERIVED TRAITS
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CLADISTICS 1. Developed by Wilhelm Hennig a.
Hennig as a mad scientist b. Impossible
terminology 1. Synapomorphy 2.
Sympleisiomorphy 3. Parsimony 2. How do you
determine which traits are derived a. Outgroup
method b. Most widespread version is
ancestral c. Graded Gains and Losses d.
Direction of evolution 6. Tree developed based
on parsimony KISS principle
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EXAMINE THE FOLLOWING DATA SET
f
c
b
d
a
e
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AMPHIBIA/LISSAMPHIBIA 5500 Species Anura
Frogs Urodela Caecilians Urodeles Caudata
Salamanders