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Zoology – Master Of Science

If you study full-time, you'll take 120 credits per year or 60 credits per semester.

The Master of Science is a parts-based qualification. That means you must complete the first part, before moving to the second.

The first part gives you good knowledge and skills that will help you with the research part of your qualification. You must pass Part One before you can progress to Part Two.

Coursework pathway

For progression to Part Two of the Master of Science, you will need a B grade average across the Part One courses including a B grade for the research methods course.

Research pathway

For progression to Part Two of the Master of Science, you will need a B grade average across the first 60 credits of Part One courses including a B grade for the research methods course.

Official regulations

To understand what you need to study and must complete to graduate read the official rules and regulations for this qualification.

You should read these together with all other relevant Statutes and Regulations of the University including the General Regulations for Postgraduate Degrees, Postgraduate Diplomas, and Postgraduate Certificates.

Returning students

For returning students, there may be changes to the majors and minors available and the courses you need to take. Go to the section called 'Transitional Provisions' in the Regulations to find out more.

In some cases the qualification or specialisation you enrolled in may no longer be taking new enrolments, so may not appear on these web pages. To find information on the regulations for these qualifications go to the Massey University Calendar.

Please contact us through the Get advice button on this page if you have any questions.

University Of Michigan Slithers Toward History With Massive Acquisition Of Jarred Snake Specimens

ANN ARBOR, Mich. -- Greg Schneider scans rows upon rows of liquid-filled glass jars containing coiled snake specimens, just a portion of the University of Michigan Museum of Zoology's reptile and amphibian collection believed to be the largest held by any research institution in the U.S. Thanks to a recent donation.

The museum this fall acquired tens of thousands of reptile and amphibian specimens from Oregon State University, many of which are snakes. The development places the university in a unique position, according to Schneider, the research museum collections manager for the museum's division of reptiles and amphibians.

"I'm fairly confident we'll have the largest snake collection in the world," he said. The extensive new additions also will allow scientists to conduct new snake and amphibian research, perhaps looking at trait evolution in mothers and their offspring.

Numerous studies have been conducted in recent years about declining amphibian and reptile populations, Schneider said, noting they "are very good biological indicators of the health of the environment and ecosystems," especially the amphibians.

"Amphibians, unlike people, breathe at least partly through their skin, which is constantly exposed to everything in their environment," he said, adding that "the worldwide occurrences of amphibian declines and deformities could be an early warning that some of our ecosystems, even seemingly pristine ones, are seriously out of balance."

Boxes containing water snakes, garter snakes, woodland salamanders, dusky salamanders and other species arrived last month. They were euthanized and ultimately placed in a solution that is 75% ethanol. The donations represent the lifetime work of two retired Oregon State professors, Lynne Houck and Stevan Arnold, who received a doctorate from Michigan in 1972.

Schneider has yet to complete the painstaking process of cataloging the new material but estimates it contains around 30,000 snakes. He said that would give Michigan a total of between 65,000 to 70,000 of the slithering vertebrates, surpassing collections at the Smithsonian in Washington, the American Museum of Natural History in New York and the University of Kansas. Some of the specimens housed at the museum prior to the Oregon State donation predate the Civil War.

The "largest snake collection" title would be nice, but Schneider said the true promise of a big collection is new research opportunities.

"The more stuff you have and the more associated materials that you have, the more things you can do," Schneider said.

The newly acquired Oregon State collection also includes about 30,000 associated frozen tissue samples. Along with advances in molecular genetics and more sophisticated DNA analyses, the samples will allow research that could result in a better understanding of inheritance, evolutionary relationships and "has huge applications in medicine," said Hernan Lopez-Fernandez, an associate professor in Michigan's Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology.

A number of the newly acquired jars contain both snakes and litters of their newborns, which Michigan professor Dan Rabosky said "is very, very rare for museum collections and is incredibly powerful for research, because it lets researchers ask questions about genetics that would otherwise not be possible."

Despite the daunting task of organizing the new collection, Schneider said he and his colleagues have noticed renewed excitement in team members who staff the university's 153,375-square-foot Research Museums Center, where the specimens are housed.

"Since these specimens arrived, people are very, very, very enthusiastic and supportive," Schneider said. "And excited about the kinds of research that are going to be done with these collections."

For Goodness Snake! University Of Michigan Museum Surpasses Smithsonian's Serpent Collection

ANN ARBOR, MI - The University of Michigan and Oregon State University are tight like the grip of a boa constrictor in at least in one field,

A donation of 30,000 snake specimens from Oregon State to the University of Michigan Museum of Zoology makes the Ann Arbor university the site of the world's largest snake collection, museum curators said.

The donation, made in September, is the continuation of a long partnership between the Pacific Northwest and Midwest universities, as the collection comes from a retired Oregon State professor and University of Michigan alum.

Professor Stevan Arnold, whose University of Michigan doctorate in 1972 leaned on the zoology museum's collection, and Lynne Houck's life work is in the collection donated to the Research Museums Center, 3600 Varsity Dr. In Ann Arbor.

Arnold thought his alma mater would be the ideal landing spot for his preserved snakes due to the extensiveness of the facility, which now houses more than 70,000 snake specimens and about a half million amphibian samples overall, according to Greg Schneider, research collections manager for the zoology museum.

"The University of Michigan has invested very, very heavily in their natural history collections and built this wonderful state-of-the-art facility to house them," Schnedier said. "We have probably the finest facility for for storing this kind of a collection."

The museum is also the second largest amphibian collection next to the Smithsonian Museum, Schneider said. Arnold's donation also contained tens of thousands of specimens outside of snakes, including woodland and dusky salamanders, curators said.

Arnold is not the university's only connection to Oregon State. Ronald Nussbaum earned his doctorate from the Pacific Northwest university in 1972 and was the University of Michigan zoology museum's curator for nearly 50 years.

"We have a very, very big collection from the Pacific Northwest because of Ronald Nussbaum," Schneider said.

The two universities have "a great scientific partnership," said Oregon State entomologist David Maddison, who helped coordinate the donation.

"This will be a boost for biodiversity studies and for ecology more generally," Maddison said.

The tens of thousands of specimens donated by Arnold are preserved in ethanol-filled glass jars on rows upon rows of storage inside museum center. The jars are filled with euthanized animals, most of them either garter or water snakes, curators said.

There are also 30,000 frozen tissue samples in Arnold's donation, curators said. The specimens can help researchers from the university and around the world study how traits evolve in multiple snake species, Schneider said.

"This is what evolutionary biologists think, that natural selection is working -- it's not fixed, it's always fluid," Schneider said, adding the research can help scientists predict how a species may evolve during the next 10, 20, 50 or 100 years.

Other applications are in molecular genetics and medicine, Schneider said.

For Schneider, his work has a direct line to the research roots of University of Michigan with former President Alexander Ruthven. The UM president from 1929-51 studied garter snakes and was a curator and director of the zoology museum prior to leading the university, Schneider said.

"While he was president, he was still conducting research on garter snakes and going on expeditions out in the field," Schneider said.

One of the samples in the snake collection is actually named after Ruthven, Schneider said. The samples come from all over the country, from Idaho to Iowa, as well as from countries such as Ecuador to the Seychelles.

The honor of having the largest collection in the world is nice, but the priority is providing quality materials for future research, he said.

"The collection is not simply about having every type of snake," he said. "Our job here is to preserve and voucher research materials."

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