Integrative animal biology encompasses a certain spectrum of disciplines, including molecular biology, cell biology, neurobiology, physiology, and ethology, to understand biological function at the whole-organism level. Ultimate and proximate factors are considered to interact to form physiological and behavioural traits specific for certain species or a particular habitat.
Biological clocks i.e. self-sustained endogenous time keeping systems, have been demonstrated to be present in all life forms on this planet and to play a central role in the regulation of a wide range of developmental, physiological, and behavioural processes to establish a coordinated synchronisation of the organism with the environment, a prerequisite for natural behaviour.
To understand the neural basis of complex natural behaviour, reductionistic and holistic approaches have to be combined to elucidate how environmental information is perceived and processed to guarantee spatial as well as temporal orientation. Learning and memory formation as well as orientation and navigation represent essential mechanisms to enable animals to cope wit hthe environmental conditions they are exposed to.
The maintenance of homeostasis despite of continuously changing or extreme environmental conditions requires particular adaptations of physiological systems. Common elements, such as the hippocampal formation or the hypothalamo-hypophysial system, as well as distinct solutions to environmental demands, such as the functional organisation of the circadian system, can be found in the animal kingdom and are often closely linked to the complexity of life history strategies. Essential life history traits, such as seasonal reproduction in many mammalian species or annual migration in birds, have evolved as a result of the integration of ultimate and proximate factors and their incorporation into the endogenous organisation or organisms.
Learning Outcomes
By the end of the module the student should be able to:
understand the multi-level organisation of animals
link processes at the molecular, cellular, tissue, organ, and whole-organism level that result in particular physiological and behavioural traits (Neurogenetics)
distinguish between ultimate and proximate factors determining general physiology and complex natural behviour (Evolutionary Ecology)
describe the role of biological time keeping systems in the regulation of dialy rhythmicity (e.g.the sleep/eake cycle), annual phenomena, including reproduction or migration, and complex behaviours including migration (Chronobiology)
understand principle mechanisms of learning and memory formation as well as spatial orientation and navigation at the neuronal and whoe-organism level in a wide range of animals (neuroethology)
3 hour sessional examination (60%). In-course assessment comprising: Oral Presentation (10%); Independent Learning (10%), Mini-Review (20%) Reassessment: Resit exams are not available for level H (final year) modules. Final year students who miss their examinations due to extenuating circumstances will be required to sit them at the next opportunity (i.e. May/June of the following year).