An introduction to biological systematics

This course on an introduction to biological systematics aims to teach students the fundamentals of systematics and phylogeny reconstruction. By the end of the course, learners will be able to understand taxa and relationships, grades and clades, homologies, and the systematic hierarchy. The course covers the approaches of Darwin, Linnaeus, and Simpson, and introduces students to the three schools of classification. The teaching method involves lectures and discussions on inferring relationships of common ancestry and translating cladograms into classifications. This course is designed for individuals interested in biology, evolution, and taxonomy.

• Introduction
• Learning outcomes
• 1 Systematics and the reconstruction of phylogeny
• 1 Systematics and the reconstruction of phylogeny
• 1.1 Introduction
• 1.2 Taxa and relationships
• 1.3 Relationships between species
• 1.4 Grades and clades
• 1.5 Clades and mammals
• 1.6 Clades and reptiles
• 1.7 Homologies
• 2 A first approach to systematics
• 2 A first approach to systematics
• 2.1 Introduction
• 2.2 Darwin, Linnaeus and Simpson
• 2.3 What does relationship mean in systematics? G.G. Simpson
• 2.4 What does relationship mean in systematics? E. Mayr
• 2.5 What does relationship mean in systematics? W. Hennig
• 2.6 Three schools of classification
• 2.7 Inferring relationships of common ancestry
• 2.8 Systematic hierarchy
• 2.9 Conflicting morphological characters
• 2.10 Chimps, gorillas and humans
• 2.11 Consequences of human / chimp pairing
• 2.12 Translating a cladogram into a classification
• 2.13 Systematics and biogeography
• 2.14 Summing up
• Conclusion
• Acknowledgements