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'Zoology' (from Greek: ζῴον, ''zoion'', "animal"; and λόγος, ''logos'', "knowledge") is the biological discipline which involves the study of animals.

Contents

Name

Scope and importance of zoology

The content of zoology

Systems of classification

History

Notable zoologists

See also

Sources and external links

References

Name

The pronunciation of "zoology" is , however an alternative pronunciation is Zoology . Traditionally, the first syllable of zoology has been pronounced as (ō), rhyming with toe. However, most likely due to the familiarity of the word zoo (which is merely a shortened form of ''zoological garden''), the pronunciation of the first syllable as (ōō) is much more commonly heard. In 1999, 88 percent of the Panelists found the (zō-) pronunciation acceptable, and 60 percent found the (zōō-) pronunciation acceptable, with 68 percent using the (zō-) pronunciation and 32 percent using the (zōō-) pronunciation in their own speech. Thus, while both pronunciations can be considered acceptable, the (zō-) pronunciation may be perceived as more accurate. .

Scope and importance of zoology

The content of zoology

The study of animal life is, of course, ancient: but as 'zoology' it is relatively modern, for what we call biology was known as 'natural history' at the start of the nineteenth century. During the lifetime of Charles Darwin natural history turned from a gentlemanly pursuit to a modern scientific activity. Zoology as we know it was first established in German and British universities. Originally quite closely connected to medical training, it gradually gained its own identity as Darwin started to answer those fundamental historical questions which had been asked before him without much success. The institution of zoology training in British universities was mainly established by Thomas Henry Huxley. His ideas were centered on the morphology of animals: he was himself the greatest comparative anatomist of the second half of the nineteenth century. His courses were composed of lectures and laboratory practical classes; and his system became widely spread.
There was much left out by Huxley, especially the study of animals in their environment, which had been the main stimulus for both Darwin and Alfred Russel Wallace (who both came up with the idea of natural selection). The fact that neither Darwin nor Wallace ever held a university teaching post may have contributed to this rather startling omission. Gradually Huxley's comparative anatomy was supplemented by other much-needed methods. The field of zoology in the twentieth century mainly comprised these approaches:
# Comparative anatomy studies the structure of animals.
# 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
# Ethology is the study of animal behaviour.
# 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.
# The various taxonomically-oriented disciplines such as mammalogy, herpetology, ornithology identify and classify species, and study the structures and mechanisms specific to those groups. Entomology is the study of insects, by far the largest group of animals.
# Palaeontology, including all that may be learnt of ancient environments.

Systems of classification

Main articles: Scientific classification

Morphography 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.

History

Main articles: History of zoology (before Darwin), History of zoology (since Darwin)

Notable zoologists

Main articles: List of zoologists

''In alphabetical order by surname:''

★ Louis Agassiz (malacology, ichthyology)

★ Aristotle

★ David Attenborough

★ Henry Walter Bates (Batesian mimicry, Amazon)

★ Pierre Joseph Bonnaterre

★ William H. Cade (Evolution of insect mating behavior)

★ Rachel Carson (marine biologist)

★ Archie Carr (Herpetology, esp. sea turtles)

★ Archie Carr III, (wild mammals)

★ Eugenie Clark (Ichthyology)

★ Jeff Corwin (herpetology)

★ Georges Cuvier (founder of comparative morphology)

★ Charles Darwin (formulated modern theory of evolution)

★ Richard Dawkins (ethology)

★ George A. Feldhamer (mammalogy)

★ Dian Fossey (primatology)

★ Birutė Galdikas (primatology)

★ Jane Goodall (primatology)

★ Arthur Davis Hasler (limnology, ichthyology, salmon homing)

★ Victor Hensen (planktology)

★ Julian Huxley (evolutionary synthesis, humanism, World Wildlife Fund, UNESCO)

★ Thomas Henry Huxley (evolution, Darwin's bulldog, agnosticism, science education)

★ Libbie Hyman (invertebrate zoology)

★ Steve Irwin (herpetology)

★ William Kirby (father of entomology)

★ Hans-Wilhelm Koepcke (ornithology, herpetology)

★ Carolus Linnaeus (father of systematics)

★ Konrad Lorenz (ethology)

★ David W. Macdonald (wild mammals)

★ Ernst Mayr (evolutionary biologist)

★ Montgomery Montgomery (Herpetology)

★ Reines' Dad (evolution, Darwin's bulldog, agnosticism, science education)

★ Fritz Müller (evolution, Müllerian mimicry, Brazil)

★ Desmond Morris (ethology)

★ Ron Nowak (wild mammals)

★ Richard Owen (vertebrate palaeontology, dinosaurs, Natural History Museum)

★ Roger Tory Peterson (ornithology)

★ William Emerson Ritter (marine biology)

★ Thomas Say (entomology)

★ Shen Kuo (medieval Chinese zoologist)

★ Su Song (medieval Chinese zoologist)

★ Jakob van Uexküll (animal behavior, invertebrate zoology)

★ Ernest P. Walker (wild mammals)

★ Alfred Russel Wallace (natural selection, zoogeography, animal colouration, Amazon, East Indies)

★ E.O. Wilson (entomology, especially ants, founder of sociobiology)

★ Robert Broom

See also

★ 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

★ Anthrozoology

★ Animals in Buddhism

★ Islam and animals

Sources and external links

★ ''A Study Guide to Invertebrate Zoology'' ~ at ''Wikibooks''

★ ''An online encyclopedia of zoology''

★ ''Online Dictionary of Invertebrate Zoology''

★ ''An online dissection pictures of animals''

★ ''Dictionary.com's discussion of pronunciation

References