Teaching

I’m currently teaching a broad range of courses for undergraduate programs in biology:

  • Bio130: Introduction to zoology (practical course): Basic undergraduate zoology module, introducing students to the morphology of various animal phyla by studying live invertebrates, histological slides and by preparing dissections.

  • V532: Mammalian biology (practical course): Comprehensive three-week introduction to the organismic biology of mammals, covering phylogenetic systematics, histology, morphology with a focus on the skeleton and sensory biology / behavior. The course includes several field trips for which I cooperate with the Department of Natural History, Hessian State Museum Darmstadt (Messel pit excursion), the Section of Theriology at Museum Koenig, Bonn (introduction to mammalogical collections), the Department of General Zoology at the University of Duisburg-Essen (sensory biology of subterranean mammals) and the zoos of Krefeld and Duisburg (mammal husbandry and zoo biology).

  • Tyrannosaurus rex – Biology of a fossil model organism (seminar): Literature seminar focused on reviewing and discussing the extensive body of research on T. rex, using it as a gateway to understand fundamental methods in vertebrate palaeontology. Open to both undergraduate and Master’s students.

  • Schlüsselqualifikationen (“professional skills”; seminar): Seminar focusing on the development of professional skills for biology undergraduates, including professional presenting, literature research and approaches to scientific hypotheses.

Supervised theses

Whenever possible, I try to offer topics for empirical theses on organismic vertebrate biology. So far, the following projects have been completed:

  • Anonymous (2024). Hand preferences in zoo-housed king colobus monkeys (C. polykomos)

  • Anonymous (2024). Kangaroo longevity: A comparison between arboreal and terrestrial species in zoos

  • Anonymous (2024). Morphometrics of two wood mouse (Apodemus sylvaticus) populations from different urban habitats

  • Alic, M. (2024). Are African apes innovative problem solvers?

  • Anonymous (2024). Potential biological correlates of conjunctival pigmentation in carnivoran mammals