Vertebrate Osteology

Catalog description

Description: Students learn to identify skeletal elements of Vertebrata. Focus is on extant vertebrates, but fossil taxa may also be used. Foci include: assessing at what taxonomic level an identification may be made; synapomorphies, homoplasies, and inference of ecology from skeletal elements; reading differential diagnoses and writing useful osteological description, and; distinguishing co-occurring taxa. Students will also receive some training in using and building osteological collections.