BIOL 400 - Vertebrate Biology

One of the hardest parts of the research process is selecting a topic - but it gets easier with practice!

You only have 10 pages to summarize an entire area of research, so you need to pick something that is focused enough that you can provide a good overview in those ten pages. Some things to keep in mind:

• You will need to do a lot of reading/browsing to select a good topic. Try starting with your textbook/course materials, browsing through the latest issues of some of your professor's recommended journals, or reading science news headlines. 
• You will probably revise your topic multiple times. The research process is iterative; once you pick a topic and start learning about it, you may realize that you need to change it. Maybe there isn't enough primary research done on it for you to be able to summarize in a review, maybe you realize that there is some other interesting aspect of it you would rather spend the entire time learning about, or something else!
• Try to find a balance between too narrow and too broad of a topic. You want to be like Goldilocks here, finding a topic with a scope that is *just* right. If you are finding an overwhelming amount of resources on your topic, it is probably too broad and you need to make it more specific. If you are finding no/hardly any resources on your topic, it is probably too narrow and you will want it to be less specific. 
• Ask for help! Talk with your classmates, talk with your professor, or ask a librarian for help. 

Perhaps most importantly, make sure the topic is interesting to you! You're going to spending a lot of time thinking/reading/writing about this topic, and it will be much more enjoyable if the questions you are asking are actually interesting to you. 

Your professor has provided a set of broad topics to get you started. You can start with one of these broad areas, or select another (make sure to check with your professor): 

For your assignment, you can select one of these broad topics (or another!) and narrow it down in some way - for instance, by limiting it to a particular species, or area, or particular adaptation of a group of animals, etc. Some examples of topics that students have explored in previous semesters are:

• Adaptations in mammalian respiration and gas exchange at high altitudes
• Peadomorphosis in salamanders
• Review of resource partitioning among various bat species
• Coloration of lizard tails and their roles as decoys
• The evolution of color change in chameleons
• Killer whales and their foraging behaviors: How diet differs and the effects of anthropogenic disturbances
• Anthropogenic sound and its effects on mammalian underwater sound communication systems
• How roars and vocal communication helps lions efficiently
• Mouth-brooding strategies among cichlid fishes and anurans
• Diversity of venom within squamates and toxicofera
• The varying use of electric impulses and electric energy across vertebrates