What are these articles for? You will be hard pressed to find much in any of the A-level specifications which relate to an extensive knowledge about Tetrapod evolution! There are other considerations however. This series of articles introduces material which certainly is within the A-level cannon and in a context which I hope is interesting to you. I say this about my own experience of A-level, but I suspect this also is true for you: there is no point in keeping on reading the same material over and over again. A new view is often helpful in widening our understanding and, my central purpose, to deepen our gratitude to be a human in this wonderful world.
View the full article – Bioblog 26 >
Here is a list of topics which have had a shake-out in the series:
Bioblog | Title | Topics Covered |
19 | To Begin at the Beginning | · Evolution: Protocells and reliance on RNA
· Cell Structure · Structure and Function of RNA(s) and DNA |
20 | None | · Evolution: the Eukaryotic Cell
· Classification · Relationships between structure and function of major life groups · Cell membrane structure |
21 | The Eukaryotic Cell Cook Book | · Cell structure
· The origin of cell organelles · Membranes |
22 | Legs: origins | · Cladistic Taxonomy
· Use of Cladograms · Vertebrate structure |
23 | Something Fishy | · Evolution
· Ancestral vertebrate structure |
24 | When Fish Wore Armour: enter the Placoderms | · Cladograms
· Predation · Evolution, convergent evolution · Vertebrate structure · Genetics |
26 | Let’s Hear It For Legs! | · Predator-Prey relationships
· Methods of Gaseous Exchange · Effect of Habitat Loss/Degradation · Countercurrent Flow |
Until next time,
Sphenodon.