Animal Anatomy and Physiology is one of the coolest units in Campbell’s just because almost everything you learn is actually happening inside you. Yes your esophagus is squishing food down to your stomach with an involuntary motion also used by worms to crawl. Yes, you have a tiny army of genetically non-identical cells patrolling your blood vessels for invaders to crush. However, the animal unit is one of the toughest as Campbell’s fits a whole bunch of info into that single unit.
One thing that is really nice about the animal unit is the fact that you really don’t need to use much outside Campbell’s. While you need genetics practice problems for Genetics and Evolution and Raven’s Biology of Plants (see last post) for Plant Anatomy and Physiology, you can really do just fine on the Animal Anatomy and Physiology questions by just knowing Campbell’s well. That being said, you need to know it REALLY well and get used to applying it, because most questions you come across won’t be as straightforward as “Which of these are digestive compartments? Select all that apply.”
In Campbell’s, you don’t need to spend much effort on Chapter 40, since it’s more of an introduction. Also, on Chapter 47, know some of the basic concepts (like which animals are holoblastic vs meroblastic and which body parts come from which embryo layers), but don’t worry about trying to memorize some of those gastrulation diagrams. Other than these two chapters, KNOW EVERYTHING. Know the purpose of interferons and what cells make them. Know which enzymes come from the pancreas vs the small intestine epithelium. Know what cells make up the retina and what order they’re arranged in. And while you should also know Chapter 51 front to back, that’s technically in Ethology, it’s own little unit that we’ll discuss in the next blog post.
