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Root number
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486841 |
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Semester
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HS2025 |
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Type of course
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Block Course |
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Allocation to subject
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Ecology and Evolution |
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Type of exam
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not defined |
| Title |
Ecomorphology, lecture with practical |
| Description |
Registration deadline 1 September in KSL (limited number of participants). Registration is binding.
Why study form and function? Form (the morphology and the composition of structures such as bones and muscles, for example) and function (movements executed by structures allowing an animal to feed in or move through a medium, for example) are linked at a fundamental level, and bones are functionally important. Studying function is necessary as selection acts on the functional output of a morphological system which is directly relevant to the fitness of an animal. While morphological variation is often used as a direct surrogate to species function and fitness – that is the value of interest to understand the role of organisms in ecosystems – the relationships between form and function are indirect and complicated as many morphologies may give rise to the same functional output. Linking function and form is thus fundamental to understand the relationship between morphological diversity and ecological, climatic, and environmental variables through time and space. This block course will address questions such as the impact of ecology on the diversity in form and function; how development (e.g., life cycle variation) may be a driver of morphofunctional diversification; how morphological variation translates into variation in function and behaviour;
In this block course, students will have several courses followed by practicals about ecomorphology. They will work in small groups (2 to 3 per group) and learn how to conduct ecomorphological studies. They will learn to conduct a research question and design a study beginning with setting up an ecomorphological protocol, collect and analyse data (3D data on morphology, gather a phylogeny and use all the tools that are available to scientists: Morphosource, vertlife, …), interpret and present results in oral format. Scientific projects will focus on how ecological factors impact the pattern of morphological variation in a group of vertebrates of their choice.
• The students will need to bring their laptop, computer mouse (more comfortable for the data acquisition on 3D objects) and install Slicer, R, Rstudio and the following R packages: ape, Morpho, geomorph, rgl, geiger, phytools and mvMorph
• will work in groups of two or three but receive independent grades!
• We will provide extensive guidance and feedback during the entire course from the design of the study, to the presentation
Students will be in class for over 40 hours. Thus, they should plan to spend time outside of class for data collection, data analyses, preparation of their talk. |
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ILIAS-Link (Learning resource for course)
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No registration/deregistration in CTS (Admission in ILIAS possible).
ILIAS
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Link to another web site
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| Lecturers |
Prof. Dr.
Anne-Claire Odile Fabre, Institute of Ecology and Evolution (IEE) ✉
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Dr.
Vivien Paul Louppe, Institute of Ecology and Evolution (IEE) ✉
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Hannes Emanuel Baur, Teaching Staff, Faculty of Science ✉
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ECTS
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3 |
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Recognition as optional course possible
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Yes |
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Grading
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1 to 6 |
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| Dates |
Tuesday 08:15-16:00 Weekly
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Wednesday 08:15-16:00 Weekly
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Thursday 08:15-16:00 Weekly
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Friday 08:15-16:00 Weekly
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Monday 08:15-16:00 Weekly
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Rooms
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| Students please consult the detailed view for complete information on dates, rooms and planned podcasts. |
User:
Öffentlicher Bereich
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