How to Pass Vertebrate Zoology

Vertebrate zoology is one of the hardest courses you will probably ever take in college. It ranks right up there with organic chemistry. At least organic chemistry sounds scary and evil though. When you hear the word "zoology" it probably doesn't send shivers up your spine (unless you've already attempted the course and failed it).

When most people think of zoology, they think of studying animals. Specifically, people think of studying cute animals and usually they are thinking of the cutest animals in the zoo. Well, get the association of cute zoo animals and zoology out of your head right now. The first thing you need to know about zoology, is that there is no "zoo" when the word is pronounced. If you go to office hours and pronounce "zoology" incorrectly the professor may be more than a little annoyed. Think of the word as being two separate parts: "zo" "ology". If you're taking zoology, you've already have courses like biology. The "ology" part is still pronounced the same way. The "zo" is pronounced so that it rhymes with "snow" and "go" and other such words.

So What is Zoology?

Zoology is the study of animals including their anatomy, physiology, development, and classification. Unless you are a zoology major, you will probably only need to take vertebrate zoology. This course mostly leaves out the invertebrates, except for the invertebrates that relate directly to the evolution of vertebrates.

Recommended Prerequisites

Before you decide to enroll for your zoology course, there are a few classes I would recommend that you take first. I highly recommend taking anatomy and physiology, at least a basic course, before embarking on your journey into zoology. Knowing what different organs do and what they look like is very helpful. I would also recommend that you take a biology course first, although usually this will be mandated by the school as well. If you have time, take the more complicated series for biology instead of the easier biology course that is offered. The more in depth biology course will help you in the long run. If you have already taken these courses but you don't remember much from them, look back at your notes and books if you still have them. Specifically, you'll want to review evolution, embryo development, and organ systems.

A Brief Overview of What You'll Be Learning

I'm going to keep this part fairly brief and nonspecific because different professors will take different approaches to this course. The animals you dissect in lab may be different than what I dissected. However, the basics of the course should be the same. In lecture you will be learning about evolution, cladograms, phylogenies, synapomorphies, homologies, and other fun stuff. The lab will probably make the lecture seem like a piece of cake because there will be an insane amount of memorization required for the lab. In the lab you must be able to memorize and identify types of cells, types of tissues, specific parts of microscopic animals, parts on dissected animals and animal organs, various pathways, and the relationships of nearly anything in the course compared to anything else in the course.

To give you just a few specific examples here, let me just tell you the types of things our class saw on the exams. In lecture, you could be asked for the synapomorphies (unique features) of a certain clade (branch on a phylogeny, which is basically a sort of classification tree). You could also be given two structures on separate species (such as a bird and a butterfly wing) and asked if they were homologous (evolved from the same original structure). In case your professor asks this, the bird and butterfly wings evolved independently so they are not homologous. Knowing names for the traditional classification system also proved to be important. So don't forget your kingdoms, phylums, classes, orders, families, genera, or species. In the lab, we had to look under microscopes and be able to identify the standard tissues (simple squamous epithelial, pseudocolumnar epithelial, connective tissues, muscle tissues, etc.) as well as simple chordate parts (amphioxus) and lamprey larvae parts (ammocoetes). On exams without microscopes we were looking at the perch, the shark, various animal skeletons, the mud puppy (necturus), a sheep eye, a sheep heart, a sheep brain, and the rat. This class is most certainly not for the squeamish.

How to Study

The problem with zoology is that it is one of those courses where you actually need to know everything. There is really no easy way to determine what the professor is going to ask on the exam. You might be given a question where a pointer is stuck to the stapes on a frog skeleton, but instead of being asked to identify what is actually being pointed out (the stapes), you will be asked to identify what this bone would have been in the perch (the hyomandibular). So by now I'm sure you see what I mean by this being a very difficult course.

However, there certainly are some excellent studying techniques for this course. When studying for lecture I recommend that you read through your notes at least five times. I don't mean skimming either, I mean reading for full comprehension five times. If you still don't feel like the material is stuck to your brain after all that reading then I would recommend also copying your notes into an outline format. Make flashcards as well if you need to, but make sure you study everything instead of only what you think is important. Unless your professor is really nice and gives specific hints, anything is fair game.

Studying for lab is much more difficult. Unfortunately, there are going to be a lot of things in lab that you cannot take home to study. Study as much in the lab as possible. Read all your lab assignment sheets before going to lab and if possible make outlines of the lab assignment sheets as well. If your professor allows it, bring a digital camera to class. You can take photos through a microscope and you can also take photos pointing out the parts of different animals. Make sure you write notes about the photos so that you can easily label them once you get home. Before the lab practical, create study guides using these photos as well as any additional relevant information. If possible, look over your lab specimens again to ensure you still know what you are looking at. Make flashcards and charts to remember what parts of the skeleton go together. Come up with useful mnemonics to remember important homologies and other bits of information. For example, if you can remember: "All Morons Quit In High School" you can remember the homologies of the middle ear bones: "Articular = Malleus, Quadrate = Incus, Hyomandibular = Stapes." If your professor goes over pathways in class such as the flow of blood, food, or water through an animal, make sure to write these down. When your professor goes through something important such as the circulation pathway through the sheep's heart, ask permission to video tape this to watch over and over again at home. Repetition is really the only way you will ever be able to recall all of this information on the exam. Start studying early because this class just flies by.

Where to Find Additional Resources

Since the exact resource locations will often change, I'm going to give you a good method to look for your own study resources online. If you look on Google you will find several zoology study guides. However, some of these could have incorrect information. To be safe, go with information listed on college websites. You can often find awesome quizzes to help you study. Your biggest resource however, will probably be YouTube. There are tons of great videos on YouTube that will show you different angles of the specimens. Our lab group personally put up several, so if you're looking for videos of the animals I have mentioned they should be up on YouTube. Many of the YouTube videos are narrated by professors while others are narrated for students. Just make sure to check the facts, and then watch the videos over and over again to help you memorize.

I wish the best of luck to anyone who has to take vertebrate zoology! Several people end up having to retake this course, sometimes multiple times. Don't end up having to retake it. Make sure that you give yourself a light course load while you take zoology, study more than you have ever studied in your entire life, and you too will pass on your first try!