Christopher K. Beachy, Ph.D.
Professor of Biology
Director, Amphibian Growth Project
Editor, Copeia
Office: 233 Cyril Moore
christopher.beachy@minotstateu.edu
Phone: (701) 858-3164
| Visit the homepage of the Amphibian Growth Project!! |  |
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MATERIALS FOR BIOL 151, Introductory Zoology Honors section (pdf) REVISED SYLLABUS (pdf) |
LAB MATERIALS REVISED SYLLABUS (pdf) Lab #1 statistics supplement (pdf) |
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Review Guide #1 (pdf) Review Guide #2 (pdf) Review Guide #3 (pdf) Systematics and phylogeny (ppt) Choanoflagellates and sponges (ppt) Number of rooted tree (excel) ------NEW STUFF----- Review Guide 4 (pdf) Cnidaria (ppt) Development (ppt) Annelida (ppt) Mollusca (ppt) Arthropoda (ppt) Chordata I (ppt) Chordata II (ppt) Chordata III (ppt) Chordata IV (ppt) Chordata V (ppt) Chordata VI (ppt) Chordata VII (ppt) Chordata VIII (ppt) Echinodermata (ppt) first day slides (ppt) PhyloquizA (pdf) PhyloquizB (pdf) PhyloquizC (pdf) PhyloquizD (pdf) PhyloquizE (pdf) PhyloquizF (pdf) Tree-building guide (pdf) Exam #1 key (pdf) Exam #2 key (pdf) Exam #3 key (pdf) Exam #4 key (pdf) Extra assignment key (pdf) Exam #5 key (pdf) |
Morphometrics I (excel) Using morphometrics slideshow (ppt) Morphometrics II (excel) Lab practical 1 key (pdf) |
Like most college professors, Dr. Beachy doesn't know the first thing about teaching. But he sure does enjoy talking about Biology, in particular Zoology (the study of animals), Herpetology (the study of amphibians and reptiles), and Ecology (the study of how critters interact with each other and their surroundings). He spends lots of time thinking about and catching salamanders and frogs.
Beachy was a bum in college, but when he was required to do undergraduate research (this started in 1985), he found that he really liked salamanders and wanted to catch them and think about and write about them for the rest of his career. "Voila! College professor it is!" he thought. It's really easy to try to be good at something when one enjoys it. He's been doing all this since then. He's learned alot since then, mostly through being wrong about what he thought about stuff.
He likes to focus especially on metamorphosis, that is, when a larval (=tadpole) amphibian transforms from the aquatic state to adopt the (sometimes) more land-dwelling condition. Metamorphosis is one amazing phenomenon. It sure seems that the animal uses one genome, then folds it up, puts it away and starts using another one. Larval salamanders don't have a tongue; they suction feed just like a fish. Metamorphosed salamanders have built a tongue; no more suction feeding. This is just one example of how larval and metamorphosed amphibians differ. While larval amphibians typically have to metamorphose at some point, a larval tiger salamander in North Dakota can "choose" to stay larval for it's whole life. Why? Well, there's lots of answers for this, and some of them are correct. But it's not the answers that motivate Dr. Beachy. It's the questions.
(Metamorphosis is just a part of an amphibian's "life history"; Beachy likes life history biology very much.)
If you like questions, amphibians, working hard at fun stuff, and want to get involved in undergraduate research, then you'd be silly to not come to Minot State and goof off with salamanders and frogs.
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Here's a list of boring stuff about Dr. Beachy: