. This is akin to your results section in other types of work

. A good descriptive section emphasizes the images. Photographs are useful but it is helpful to supplement your photographs with an interpretive diagram

.You can look at a lot of anatomical papers and you will find that there are usually more drawings than photographs!

Don’t worry if you are not a good illustrator. You can do either or both of the following:

-Schematic diagrams

-Tracings directly off your photographs.

It is in this section that you interpret and explain your results.

You will address the topic or question in the title and introduction of your report. You will interpret your results in light of other species which you have either observed in the lab or read about in the primary literature

. How to organize and develop your discussion:

-Interpretation and comparison: this is where you can compare your specimen(s) to more and less closely related species.You describe your specimen with reference to anatomical homologies in those other species.

-Use existing phylogenetic information (where available) to try to explore the question of primitive and derived states in the evolutionary history of this structure.

-Is the structure or system in question relevant to the animal’s ecology? If so, how?Think about feeding, habitat,reproduction.

-Is there a fossil record of the structure(s) or animals in question? What are the earliest examples and how do they compare?

-How could you take this project into the future if you had more time/material? What questions have arisen in your work that would make a useful topic of future study?

N

These are key! Your work is fundamentally comparative meaning you will need to make reference to other examples that are more or less closely related to your taxon of interest. So you are certainly welcome to make use of figures from other sources as long as they are modified and have appropriate citation and attribution