Transcript Biology Introduction to Classification and Taxonomy

Biology
Introduction to Classification
and Taxonomy
Classification
• Classification: method by which
biologists group and categorize species of
organisms
• Taxonomy: the science of classifying
plants and animals
Classification
• Why put large groups of organisms (or
species) into groups?
– Identify different but similar species
• What are the similarities / differences
between:
– Grasses & Elephants?
– Mosquito & Crocodile?
– Mosquito & Fly?
• Waxeye
• Silvereye
• Ringeye
• White eye
• Tauhou
Zosterops lateralis
Rules
Each species name has two parts
Canis
Genus name
familiaris
Species name
Rules
• The genus name is always starts with a CAPITAL
LETTER
– Eg Homo sapiens
• When typed, the whole name is in italics
– Eg Homo sapiens not Homo sapiens
• When written both names are underlined
– Eg Homo sapiens not Homo sapiens
• After you have written the full name once you can
shorten the genus name.
– Eg “Adult Homo sapiens have 206 bones, but at birth H. sapiens
has closer to 300 bones.”
Full Classification
Tax. groups
• Kingdom
• Phylum
• Class
• Order
• Family
• Genus
• Species
Mnemonic
• Keep
• Pet
• Cockroaches
• Out
• From
• Getting
• Squashed
Example : Humans
• Animals
• Chordate
• Mammals
• Primate
• Hominidae
• Homo
• sapiens
Example Organisms
Phylum Bryophyta, Class Musci (mosses)
Phylum Bryophyta, Class Hepaticae (liverworts)
Phylum Tracheophyta, Class Filicopsida (ferns + horse tails)
Dichotomous Keys
• Classification - identifying similar but
different species needs:
– Clear descriptions
– Clear diagrams
– Unique genus & species name
(dichotomous keys fulfil this –
if the organism is already classified)
Newly Discovered Snub-Nosed Monkey Sneezes in the Rain
• ScienceDaily (Oct. 27, 2010) — An international team of
primatologists have discovered a new species of monkey in
Northern Myanmar (formerly Burma.) The research, published
in the American Journal of Primatology, reveals how
Rhinopithecus strykeri, a species of snub-nosed monkey, has
an upturned nose which causes it to sneeze when it rains…
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2010/10/101026203638.htm
The Yoda Bat: This tube-nosed fruit bat is just one of the roughly 200 new species
encountered during two scientific expeditions to Papua New Guinea in 2009—including
a katydid that "aims for the eyes" and a frog that does a mean cricket impression,
Though seen on previous expeditions, the bat has yet to be formally documented as a
new species, or even named. Like other fruit bats, though, it disperses seeds from the
fruit in its diet, perhaps making the flying mammal crucial to its tropical rain forest
ecosystem.
This unidentified purple octopus is one of
11 potentially new species found during a
July 2010 deep-sea expedition off
Canada's Atlantic coast
Boasting a tail three times the length of its head, the newly described long-tailed slug is
found only in the high mountains of the Malaysian part of Borneo, scientists said in April
(2010). The new species shoots its mate with "love darts" made of calcium carbonate
and spiked with hormones—hence its nickname: ninja slug. Scientists believe this Cupidlike behaviour may increase reproductive success.
A new species of armoured, wood-eating catfish (pictured underwater) found in the
Amazon rain forest feeds on a fallen tree in the Santa Ana River in Peru in 2006.
Other so-called suckermouth armoured catfish species use their unique teeth to scrape
organic material from the surfaces of submerged wood. But the new, as yet unnamed,
species is among the dozen or so catfish species known to actually ingest wood
The Simpsons Toad
Photograph courtesy Robin Moore, ILCP
Nosing around for "lost" amphibian species in western Colombia in September 2010,
scientists stumbled across three entirely new species—including this beaked toad.
"Its long, pointy, snoutlike nose reminds me of the nefarious villain Mr. Burns from The
Simpsons television series," expedition leader Robin Moore said in a November
statement.
You could call it the surprise du jour: A popular food on Vietnamese menus has turned
out to be a lizard previously unknown to science, scientists said in November.
What's more, the newfound Leiolepis ngovantrii is no run-of-the-mill reptile—the allfemale species reproduces via cloning, without the need for male lizards.
Japanese macaque Macaca fuscata
Known as the snow monkey from the fact
that it lives in areas where snow covers the
ground for months each year—no primate,
with the exception of humans, is more
northern-living, nor lives in a colder climate
Green Pheasant,
Phasianus versicolor
The national bird of Japan
Red crowned crane - Grus japonensis
(Chinese: 丹顶鹤 or 丹頂鶴; Japanese: 丹頂 or タンチョウ, tancho;
the Chinese character '丹' means 'red', '頂/顶' means 'crown' and '
鶴/鹤' means 'crane'), is a large east Asian crane and among the
rarest cranes in the world. In some parts of its range, it is known
as a symbol of luck, longevity and fidelity.
Squid Worm Squid? Worm? Initially, this new species—with bristle-based "paddles" for
swimming and tentacles on its head—so perplexed Census of Marine Life researchers
that they threw in the towel and simply called it squidworm,
Pink Handfish Only four specimens of the elusive four-inch (ten-centimetre) pink
handfish have ever been found, and all of those were collected from areas around Hobart
Star-nosed moles are easily identified by the eleven pairs of pink fleshy
appendages ringing their snout which are used as a touch organ with more than
25,000 minute sensory receptors, known as Eimer’s organs, with which this
hamster-sized mole feels its way around
• http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2010/12/photo
galleries/101207-top-ten-weird-new-animals2010/#/newfoundland-deep-sea-speciesoctopus_23992_600x450.jpg done
• http://divaboo.info/
• http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2011/11/photo
galleries/111128-top-ten-weird-new-species-2011/
• http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2012/02/pictur
es/120202-best-science-pictures-2011-scivisvisualization-illustration-photography/
Giant Centipede
Blue-ringed
Octopus
(Hapalochlaena lunulata)
The Blobfish (Psychrolutes marcidus) Is a deepwater fish rarely seen by humans. It is
found along the shores of Australia and Tasmania. Blobfish are made mostly of jelly. This
jelly flesh weighs less than water, allowing them to float, and conserving energy
otherwise spent in an attempt to stay off the sea floor.
Troides helena
There are about 16 000 recorded species
of butterflies in the world. Among them, 1
300 species can be found in China and
235 species in Hong Kong. In urban parks
of Hong Kong, a total of 48 species of
butterflies can be found. They are Skippers
(Family Hesperiidae), Swallowtails (Family
Papilionidae), Whites and Yellows (Family
Pieridae), Blues (Family Lycaenidae),
Nymphs (Family Nymphalidae) and
Browns (Family Satyridae).
• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_protect
ed_species_in_Hong_Kong#Animals
• http://www.hkoutdoors.com/hkwildlife/deadliest-hong-kong-animals.html
• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Species_first_d
iscovered_in_Hong_Kong
• http://www.gov.hk/en/residents/environme
nt/conservation/naturalenvplantsanimals.ht
m
• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Smallest_organ
isms#Mammals
• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Largest_organi
sms