New Discoveries about the Human Fish to the Benefit of Humans and the Olm: the workshop was about the human fish and amphibians. Through lectures and a 3D model of a human fish, students learned about the biology of the animal, genetic research, threats and distribution. This workshop also included learning about live animals (the common toad, the great crested newt and the yellow-bellied toad), as well as materials from the permanent collections (tadpoles, green toad, alpine salamander, phrynoderma).
Each species has its own name (Scopoli): The pupils were first introduced to the importance of describing and naming species and to the importance of exploring the diversity of their habitats. This was followed by the identification of selected species from permanent collections using stereomicroscopes and the construction of binary identification keys. In the last part of the workshop, the developmental stages of two insect species (mealybugs and cockroaches) were compared and different professional definitions of species were discussed.
Coordinator: Iztok Tomažič, PhD, in cooperation with Ana Pšeničnik, Barbara Halas and Ana Nagode, Biotechnical Faculty