Master of Philosophy (MPhil Zoology)

M.Phil Zoology - Zoology is the area of systematic biology that studies the animal kingdom. Systematic biology (or just systematics) is "the scientific study of the kinds and diversity of organisms" (Simpson, p. 7). The animal kingdom is one of at least five kingdoms into which organisms are now divided; the others are plants, fungi, protoctists, and bacteria. The last two kingdoms comprise only unicellular organisms: protoctists include all unicellular organisms formerly considered animals, among them amoebas and paramecia, as well as several types of unicellular algae; bacteria are unicellular organisms lacking a differentiated cellular nucleus. Animals and plants are multicellular organisms, but plants have cell walls and animals do not. Fungi may be unicellular or multicellular, but do not develop through embryological stages, as do plants and animals.