Fishes, reptiles, and mammals all include species that spend all or much of their lives in or near the ocean. In this course, we survey those taxa, paying particular attention to how the biotic and abiotic aspects of marine environments have shaped organismal morphology, physiology, and behavior. Students learn about the biology of marine fishes as well as extinct marine reptiles, modern sea turtles and sea snakes, shore birds, and whales and their relatives. This course includes discussions of the conservation challenges facing each group. Because of our location and the deep historical connection our region has to fisheries, including the whaling industry of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, we emphasize the marine vertebrates of New England and the Mid-Atlantic coasts. This course includes a mandatory field trip to a regional aquarium or local shoreline.
Students are strongly encouraged to have taken the introductory biology sequence (BIOL 101 to 104) or have the equivalent understanding of biology, evolution, and ecology.