Form and Function in Vertebrate Feeding and Locomotion1

SYNOPSIS. Relationships between the form and function of vertebrate animals are engaging, logical, and thought provoking. They can be introduced into a first year biology course in lessons that are large or small, that require scant technical vocabulary, and that stand alone or are combined with some other subjects. Material can be structured in various ways, and interest and conceptual value may be increased by following more than one. Thus, the teacher can (1) analyze the function(s) of one particular form, or study the various forms that contribute to one general function; (2) explore how, in general, animals generate and translate force and motion, and utilize energy; (3) present animal applications of biomechanical laws; or (4) illustrate such central ideas of functional morphology as the significance of ancestry, of morphogenetic process, and of complex functional units. Examples are given of how most of these ways of organizing instruction in vertebrate form and function might be followed in the classroom.

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