This course is offered as part of the Marine Biology Quarter in Autumn, 2017

FHL 305, Biology of Fishes, is an introductory course designed to provide an overview on the diversity of fishes, namely on their ecology and evolutionary relationships. We’ll discuss and conduct hands-on examinations of the anatomy, systematics, behavior, and trends in diversity of extinct and extant fishes — from jawless fishes like hagfish and lampreys, to jawed animals like cartilaginous sharks and rays, and on to the most diverse group of fishes: the bony fishes and teleosts. This survey will impart students with the basic rules governing where we find certain fishes, from the freshwaters of Amazonia onto mangrove swamps and coral reefs in the Indo-Pacific, and focusing especially on the fishes of the Salish Sea in lab.  Students will leave with an understanding of the history of fishes, the basics of their identification and relationships, and a global perspective on modern fish diversity and biogeography.

The instructor for this course is Dr. Matthew Kolmann from the University of Washington.