Course Contents

COURSE CONTENTS Introduction to animal kingdom: features of protists, protozoa, annelids, arthropods, myriapods, echinoderms, chordates, amphibians, reptiles and birds. Plant biodiversity – history, importance, usefulness and evolution; importance of plants, their conservation and domestication; improvement of crops; impact of environment on loss of genetic diversity and speciation; in situ and ex situ conservation; evolution of microbes, plants and animals; origin of life; methods of studying evolution; construction of phylogenetic trees on basis of morphology and molecular markers; environmental ethics. PRACTICALS Shape and structure of different classes of microbes, plants and animals by light microscopy; study of euglena, amoeba, entamoeba, plasmodium and paramecium (from slides); sponges and their various body forms; cnindaria; platyhelminths; nematodes; molluscs; annelids; pisces; amphibians; reptilian; aves; mammalia; pond freshwater ecosystem; vegetation profile; grassland, rangeland and forest; biotic and abiotic factors of grassland, rangeland and aquatic ecosystem including methods of sampling; analysis of plant communities by different methods and decomposition of leaf litter by organisms.