Charles Darwin, the founder of Natural Selection Theory had many ardent followers. One of them was Huxley, who was nicknamed ‘Bull dog of Darwin’ for his vociferous support to Darwinism. His student and a distinguished research fellow Dr. A.G.Bourne Esquire, D.Sc., came to India in 1886 and opened the Department of Biology at Presidency College, Madras Presidency. He established B.A. degree course – section-A – Botany and Section – B – Zoology. He was succeeded by Prof. P.F.Fyson as Professor of Biology. In 1910 the Biology department was bifurcated and a separate Department of Zoology was established and was located at the present Tamil department. Prof. R. Ramunni Menon was the first Indian Zoology Professor to serve the department, and he served until 1927. He introduced the 2-year B.A. (Pass) and 5-year B.A. (Hons.) courses. On retirement as Professor and Principal of this College, he was appointed as Vice-Chancellor of the University of Madras. The university library and administrative building are his contribution to the field of education. He was then succeeded by Dr. Manavala Ramanujam in 1927. The department was shifted to the present block which is an Indo Saracenic British building constructed in 1938. Dr. Manavala Ramanujam continued as Professor, Head and Principal until 1948. During his tenure, 2-year B.Sc. (Pass) and 3-year B.Sc. (Hons.) courses were started. The Zoology Department Library was his personal contribution to the department. He was later appointed ad the Vice-Chancellor of Annamalai University from 1948 to 1951. Prof. John. P. Sunder Rao was the Head of the Department from 1947 to 1957. In 1953, B.Sc. (Hons.) was designated as a Post graduate course. In 1956, M.Sc. Zoology was introduced. Prof. P. Kochukutta Menon was the Head of the Department from 1962 to 1963. ‘Prof. P.K.Menon’ as he was popularly called by his students was the first to establish Research Course leading to Ph.D. Mr.Kannan was the first student to get the coveted Ph.D. from this Department, and till now 73 students have received their Ph.D. degrees through this department. The department boasts of catering to about 150 Under Graduate students, 40 Post Graduate students, and over 60 Research Scholars, currently. The under graduate course is now christened as Advanced Zoology and Biotechnology and the curriculum updated to keep pace with the global and national progress in the field of life sciences. The research output of this department is a decent 2-3 Ph.D.s and a handful of research publications in a year and most of the faculty are recognized research guides for M.Phil. and Ph.D. courses. Two of our Post Graduate students were selected by the Government of Tamilnadu for study abroad programme and pursued a semester of their study in UK. The alumni of the department are employed all over the world.