Zoology - Branches of Zoology

Branches of Zoology

Although the study of animal life is ancient, its scientific incarnation is relatively modern. This mirrors the transition from natural history to biology at the start of the nineteenth century. Since Hunter and Cuvier, comparative anatomical study has been associated with morphography shapins the modern areas of zoological investigation: anatomy, physiology, histology, embryology, teratology and ethology. Modern zoology first arose in German and British universities. In Britain, Thomas Henry Huxley was a prominent figure. His ideas were centered on the morphology of animals. Many consider him the greatest comparative anatomist of the latter half of the nineteenth century. Similar to Hunter, his courses were composed of lectures and laboratory practical classes in contrast the previous format of lectures only. This system became widely spread.

Gradually zoology expanded beyond Huxley's comparative anatomy to include the following sub-disciplines:

• Zoography, also known as descriptive zoology, describes animals and their habitats
• Comparative anatomy studies the structure of animals.
• Animal physiology
• Behavioral ecology
• Ethology is the study of animal behavior.
• The various taxonomically oriented disciplines such as mammalogy, herpetology, ornithology and entomology identify and classify species and study the structures and mechanisms specific to those groups.

Related fields:

• Evolutionary biology: Development of both animals and plants is considered in the articles on evolution, population genetics, heredity, variation, Mendelism, reproduction.
• Molecular Biology studies the common genetic and developmental mechanisms of animals and plants
• Palaeontology
• Systematics, cladistics, phylogenetics, phylogeography, biogeography and taxonomy classify and group species via common descent and regional associations.