Course Name: BSCI 40195 Mythical Creatures and Developmental Biology
Description: Since ancient times and in many different cultures, mythical creatures such as monsters (e.g. the hydra, gargoyles), human and animal hybrids (e.g. centaurs, the Sphinx), and creatures with a combination of traits (e.g. unicorns, dragons) are symbols of human values and feelings including power, loyalty, wisdom, fear, and sadness. Mythical creatures are represented in writing, art, and sculpture throughout the city of Florence, Italy. In this course we will explore and view mythical creatures through a developmental biology prism in order to assess what is possible due to architectural constraints of animal forms vs. what is fantastical, made possible only in man’s deepest imaginations. This course will include site visits to art museums and sculpture gardens to view mythical creatures, discussion of what these creatures symbolize in Italian (or French) cultural history, site visits to natural history museums to record animal architectural constraints in a historical context, and discussion of developmental biological processes that underlie these architectural constraints. This course is designed for biology majors and non-majors.
Credit Hours: 3
Prerequisites: None