The animal for Course Assignment #1 is the parasitic flatworm Fasciola hepatica.
Taxonomy (worth 10%)
- Up to date (valid based on the latest scientific consensus) mandatory ranks are required along
with a common name and the authority.
General morphology (worth 20%) - Please use the image provided to generate a hand-drawn figure*. The figure must be a labelled drawing of the animal. In a field setting, an animal biologist may only have paper and pencil at hand to make sketches and notes on the morphology of an animal. So, computer/tablet-assisted drawings are not permitted.
Identify and label the following structures in your hand-drawn figure:
(1) Anterior (oral) sucker (2) Mouth (3) Pharynx (4) Ventral sucker (5) Intestinal caecum (6) Intestinal Diverticula (7) Ovary (8) Uterus (9) Eggs in uterus (10) Vitelline gland (11) Testis (12) Mehlis’s gland (13) Cirrus
– For general morphology, a written description of the morphology of the adult animal is required which must consider general body form and appearance as well as labelled structures as appropriate.
Ecological information (worth 10%) - Range and Distribution - Abundance - Habitat (of adult animals and developing stages)
Life-history information (worth 25%) - In addition to a description of the life cycle, this section should include a hand-drawn figure*
of the life cycle of Fasciola hepatica. The life cycle has at least seven (7) stages that, broadly speaking, occur across four (4) environments - Food (should include food sources of all life-cycle stages where applicable)
Relevance to humans (worth 15%) - This section can be split into two sub-sections where one can deal with the direct medical
relevance to humans and the other can deal with indirect relevance associated with such things as animal husbandry etc.
Bibliography (worth 10%) - The bibliography should be in the style of the peer reviewed journal. How to do this is detailed
in the document titled “Detailed guidelines for bibliography”
Overall presentation etc. (worth 10%) - this mark is at the discretion of the TA/marker. It is based (broadly speaking) on overall
presentation. Examples include (but are not limited to): Is the fact sheet well laid out? Does the Fact Sheet look polished? Are figures used well and of good quality? Did the student provide figure legends and were they informative? Grammar, spelling, progressive development of content etc.
1. Resources used for the fact sheet must be from the primaryliterature, reputablebook/s or published reports by national/international scientific working groups. Websites that are not “peer reviewed” are typically not acceptable
