Sue Philhower Raylman

Senior Lecturer

Ph.D. 2001, North Carolina State University

E-mail: sphilhow@wvu.edu

My interests lie in the fields of behavioral ecology, evolutionary biology, and science education. I thoroughly enjoy teaching about how evolution shapes the behavior and anatomy of animals. Although I am not currently conducting research, an outline of my research interests is available on http://www.as.wvu.edu/~sraylman. Here are descriptions of the courses I teach:

Human Physiology (Biology 235): This course takes an integrated systems approach to human physiology. We discuss the major physiological systems (circulatory, muscular, nervous, immune, respiratory, etc.) and consider how these systems interrelate.

Behavioral Ecology (Biology 338): We consider how specific behaviors have evolved through natural selection, particularly in regard to an animal's ecological role - getting at why animals behave the way they do. We will consider both the theoretical (i.e. mathematical) and empirical (experimental and comparative) aspects of behavioral ecology.

Comparative Anatomy (Biology 440): The animals that are most familiar to us: mammals, birds, fish, etc., are chordates and their evolutionary history is intriguing. We investigate the function, form and evolution of various anatomical systems found in chordates. In lab, we get a hands-on look at the anatomy of a shark, mudpuppy, cat, perch, lamprey and tunicate.