Zoology
Zoology is the
biological discipline which involves the study of
animals.
The word
zoology comes from
Greek Ζωο,
zoo ("animal"), and λογος, -
logy ("study").
The original branches of zoology established in the late
19th century such as zoo-physics, bionomics and morphography, have largely been subsumed into more broad areas of biology which include studies of mechanisms common to both plants and animals. The biology of animals is covered in several broad areas:
#The
physiology of animals is studied under various fields including
anatomy and
embryology#The common
genetic and developmental mechanisms of animals and plants is studied in
molecular biology,
molecular genetics and
developmental biology #The
ecology of animals is covered under
behavioral ecology and other fields#
Evolutionary biology of both animals and plants is considered in the articles on
evolution,
population genetics,
heredity,
variation,
Mendelism,
reproduction.#
Systematics,
cladistics,
phylogenetics,
phylogeography,
biogeography and
taxonomy classify and group species via common descent and regional associations.
In addition the various taxonomically oriented-disciplines such as
mammalogy,
herpetology,
ornithology study mechanisms that are specific to those groups.
Main article:
Scientific classificationMorphography includes the systematic exploration and tabulation of the facts involved in the recognition of all the recent and extinct kinds of animals and their distribution in space and time. (1) The
museum-makers of old days and their modern representatives the curators and describers of zoological collections, (2) early
explorers and modern naturalist travellers and writers on zoo-geography, and (3)
collectors of
fossils and
palaeontologists are the chief varieties of zoological workers coming under this heading. Gradually, since the time of
Hunter and
Cuvier,
anatomical study has associated itself with the more superficial morphography until today no one considers a study of animal form of any value which does not include internal structure,
histology and
embryology in its scope.
The real dawn of zoology after the legendary period of the
Middle Ages is connected with the name of an
Englishman,
Edward Edward Wotton, born at
Oxford in
1492, who practised as a
physician in
London and died in
1555. He published a treatise
De differentiis animalium at
Paris in
1552. In many respects Wotton was simply an exponent of
Aristotle, whose teaching, - with various fanciful additions, constituted the real basis of zoological knowledge throughout the Middle Ages. It was Wotton's merit that he rejected the legendary and fantastic accretions, and returned to Aristotle and the observation of nature.
The most ready means of noting the progress of zoology during the
16th,
17th and
18th centuries is to compare Aristotle's classificatory conceptions of successive naturalists with those which are to be found in the works of
Caldon.
*
Louis Agassiz (
malacology,
ichthyology)
*
Aristotle*
Bonnaterre, Pierre-Joseph*
Archie Carr, (
June 16,
1909-
May 21,
1987) (
Herpetology), esp. sea turtles
*
Charles Darwin (formulated modern
theory of evolution)
*
Richard Owen (proposed
archetypes for major groups of organisms)
*
Georges Cuvier (founder of
comparative morphology)
*
Richard Dawkins (
ethology)
*
Dian Fossey (
primatology)
*
Arthur David Hasler, (
January 5,
1908-
March 23,
2001) (
limnology,
ichthyology, salmon homing)
*
Victor Hensen, (
February 10,
1835-
April 5,
1924) (
planktology)
*
Libbie Hyman (
invertebrate zoology)
*
William Kirby (father of
entomology)
*
Carolus Linnaeus (father of
systematics)
*
Konrad Lorenz (
ethology)
*
David W. Macdonald (
wild mammals)
*
Ernst Mayr (1905-2005), influential
evolutionary biologist, one of the founders of the "modern synthesis" of evolutionary theory in the 1940s.
*
Desmond Morris (
ethology)
*
Ron Nowak (
wild mammals)
*
Roger Tory Peterson (
ornithology)
*
Thomas Say (
entomology)
*
Ernest P. Walker (
wild mammals)
*
E. O Wilson, b.
1929, (
entomology, founder of
sociobiology)
*
Jakob van Uexküll (animal behavior,
invertebrate zoology)
*
Zoological distribution*
Zootomy - the study of animal anatomy or animal dissection
*
Cryptozoology - the psuedoscientific study of hidden or unknown animals
*
Palaeontology*
Oceanography*
Entomology - the area of biology which studies
insects
*
Botany - the area of biology which studies
plants
*
Microtomy*
List of zoologists*
Important Publications in Zoology*
AnthrozoologyA Study Guide to Invertebrate Zoology ~ at
WikibooksAn online encyclopedia of zoologyOnline Dictionary of Invertebrate ZoologyAn online dissection pictures of animals*
