Increasingly our environment is impacted by anthropogenic activities, yet the study of whole animal biology is a neglected field of education together with a lack of support for systematic biology. The consequences of this lack of instruction and the environmental awareness it engenders is discussed both for the current and future generations of students. Suggestions are given as to how to reverse this situation and to change the attitude of academics responsible for developing course work to include the study of whole animal biology and systematics and the importance of senior scientists mentoring the next generation.

invertebrates, undergraduate teaching, whole animal biology
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