Identification and Classification

IDENTIFICATION and CLASSIFICATION
Identification
 To identify an organism is to determine which taxon it
belongs to.
 An “accurate” identification is not only correct, but will

identify an organism with a particular species.
 However, it is not at all unusual, in practice, that an

identification can only be made to genus or even
higher level.
 There are many possible reasons. Perhaps the

organism being identified is incomplete; some part
(e.g. a flower) which is necessary for a completely
accurate identification is not present.
Identification
 This problem is particularly acute when it comes
to identifying fossils, which are more commonly
fragmentary than not.
 In some cases, the species may not have been

previously recognized, or even if recognized, not
formally published.
 In such cases, a relationship to a similar species

which has been described might be indicated
with an aff. indicating “affinity to,” or the less
confident cf. meaning “compare with.”
Taxonomic Key
 It is a device used by
biologists for identifying
unknown organisms.
 Keys are constructed so
that the user is presented
with a series of choices
about the characteristics of
the unknown organisms;
 By making the correct
choice at each step of
the key, the user is
ultimately led to the
identity of a specimen.
A taxonomic key is often published with pictures of
the species it describes.
However, written descriptions are usually preferred
over pictures, since pictures cannot convey the natural
variation in the morphology of a species, nor the small,
yet characteristic, morphological features of a species.
In addition, matching an unidentified organism to
one picture in a book of hundreds or thousands of
pictures can be very time-consuming.
 The dichotomous key
is the best and most-
used format for
taxonomic keys.
 A dichotomous key
sequentially presents
pairs of alternative
morphological features
(dichotomies) and
requires the user to
decide which alternative
best describes the
unknown organism.
 Taxonomic keys often require
knowledge of the morphology of
the taxa in question and
consequently rely upon technical
terminology.
 Taxonomic keys often use the
sexual organs of animals
(genitalia), plants (flowers, fruits,
and cones), and fungi (spore-
bearing structures), because
these differ significantly among
closely related species.
 This indicates that sexual organs of
animals, plants, and fungi tend to evolve
rapidly and divergently, presumably
because they are subjected to great
evolutionary selection pressures.
 Differences in reproductive structures

also indicate that mating may not be
successful, and that two organisms may
be reproductively isolated—that is,
different species.
Classification
 Taxonomic classification is the grouping together of
different organisms into different taxa (taxonomic
categories), such as family, genus, and species.
 In the time of Linneaus (mid-1700s), taxonomists and
naturalists did not generally acknowledge that all
species have evolutionary affinities to other species.
 Thus, early classification systems were artificial, in
that they did not represent the lines of evolutionary
descent.
 Most early taxonomists classified species according
to their overall similarity because they thought this
revealed the divine origin of nature.
 Animals and plants are grouped into several categories
which indicate their degree of relationship, one to another.
 These, starting from the general to the specific, are:
Kingdom
Phylum
Class
Order
Family
Genus
Species
 All taxonomic categories above the species level are to
some extent artificial and subjective - and when breeding
habits are not known, this applies within the species
category too.
 Despite this, all categories should ideally reflect
evolutionary relationships.
Species
 The fundamental unit of taxonomy is the
species.
 This is a group of very similar individuals that
have the potential to interbreed freely, to produce
fertile offspring - but cannot interbreed
successfully with individuals from other species.
Hence,
the mule is a cross
between 2 species
(the horse and the
donkey) but is
infertile. X
There are, as ever,
exceptions where the
rule breaks down,
especially in the plant
Kingdom.
However, in the majority
of cases,
interbreeding of
species does not
produce fertile
offspring.
Sterility is often attributed to the different number of chromosomes the
two species have, for example donkeys have 62 chromosomes, while
horses have 64 chromosomes, and mules and hinnies have 63
chromosomes.
Reason: the extra chromosome cannot make a homologous pair at
meiosis, meiosis is disrupted, and viable sperm and eggs are not
formed.
Donkey (Jack) + Horse (Mare) = Mule Horse (Stallion) + Donkey (Jenny) = Hinny
 In palaeontology however, it can never be known for
certain whether a population with a particular morphology
was reproductively isolated or not. Hence, the definition
of a fossil species (and most living specimens) must be
based almost entirely on morphological criteria.
Sometimes, this can be supplemented by a comparison
of the chemistry of the shell, but only rarely.
 The scientific name for a species consists of 2 parts - it is
binomial, with a generic name followed by a trivial (or
specific) name.
 It is always written in italics, where genus name begin

with a capital letter and species name begin with small
letter, such as Echinocorys scutata (fossil echinoderm).
 A species may sometimes be further divided into sub-

species, in which case it will have three names. [the third
being its WHAT it is called?]
Subspecies, or varieties in plant taxonomy, is a minor
category below the species; that's the meaning of
"sub".
For example:
Species: Gallus gallus (chicken)
Subspecies: Gallus gallus bankiva (domestic chicken)
Gallus gallus varius (wild chicken)

Genus
 The generic name refers to the genus, which is a group
of species that are fairly closely related - such as the
genus Equus which includes several species, such as
the Equus caballus, Equus asinus and Equus zebra
(domestic horse, wild ass and zebra respectively).
 The generic name (Equus) can be used alone, to

describe a genus, whereas the specific name is always
used with the generic name - it is meaningless when
used alone.
 The generic name always begins with a capital letter,
and generic and species names are always printed in
italic (or underlined when writing or typing, when italic is
not available).
Equus caballus Equus zebra
(domestic horse) (zebra)
Equus asinus
(wild ass)
Family
 Genera are grouped into families, which are major
groups of generally similar organisms; such as
Felidae, which includes all cat-like animals from
domestic cat to wild lynx to tiger to cheetah to jaguar
to snow leopard.
 Every continent (with the exception of Australia and
Antarctica) has its own genus of cat, but all are of
the Felidae family.
 Family names always end in the letters "ae", but are
not printed in any special way.
Order
 Families are grouped into orders, whose individuals
may vary in many ways; such as the order of
Carnivora - which includes cats, dogs and weasels.
However; all members vary significantly from the
plant-eating animals, such as those in the major
order Artiodactyla, which includes the pigs, deer,
giraffe and antelopes.
 Orders begin with a capital and usually end in "a" -
but not always, so it is not always easy to tell what is
an order!
Class
The class is a major division within the animal
Kingdom, and form the basis on which most
fossil study is based.
For example, the phylum Mollusca contains
4 classes: the Gastropoda, Cephalopoda,
Pelecypoda and Scaphopoda, of which
Gastropoda and Cephalopoda are common
vocabulary within the geological, and
palaeontological worlds.
Pelecypoda
Gastropoda
Cephalopoda
Scaphopoda
Phylum
 Classes are grouped into phyla (the plural of
phylum), and phyla into Kingdoms.
 There are only about 30 phyla in the animal
kingdom, and only about a dozen of these (including
Mollusca and Brachiopoda) leave any fossil
remains.
 Thus, the vast majority of life has left no evidence
for us to find.
Within the animal Kingdom, Animalia, the most
common phyla are:
 Chordata (e.g. fishes, amphibians, reptiles, birds,
mammals)
 Echinodermata (e.g. starfish)
 Arthropoda (e.g. insects)
 Mollusca (e.g. snails)
 Annelida (i.e. segmented worms)
 Nematoda (i.e. unsegmented worms)
 Platyhelminthes (e.g. tapeworms)
 Cnidaria and Ctenophora (e.g. jellyfish)
 Porifera (e.g. sponges)
Kingdom
 Various web resources list either 3, 4 or 5 Kingdoms
of life, the most common being that of:
Monera : prokaryotes (i.e., without a nucleus)
Protista : single-celled eukaryotes
Fungi : unique group of eukaryotes (based on
nutrition)
Plantae: multicellular algae and plants
Animalia: multicellular animals
 However; the current favored hierarchy has a further
highest level, that of the Domain, which contain 7
Kingdoms between them.
The domains and kingdoms recognized today are :
Domain Kingdom
Bacteria (Eubacteria) Bacteria
Archaea Crenarchaeota
Euryarchaeota
Eukarya Protoctista
Fungi
Plantae
Animalia
The Kingdom Animalia is sometimes termed the Metazoan.

However the Metazoan is more accurately a SubKingdom of Animalia,
as it excludes the Porifera (e.g. sponges)

Identification and Classification

Uploaded by

Copyright:

Available Formats

Identification and Classification

Uploaded by

Document Information

Original Description:

Original Title

Copyright

Available Formats

Share this document

Share or Embed Document

Sharing Options

Did you find this document useful?

Is this content inappropriate?

Copyright:

Available Formats

Identification and Classification

Uploaded by

Copyright:

Available Formats

IDENTIFICATION and CLASSIFICATION

 An “accurate” identification is not only correct, but will

 However, it is not at all unusual, in practice, that an

 There are many possible reasons. Perhaps the

 In some cases, the species may not have been

 In such cases, a relationship to a similar species

 Differences in reproductive structures

 It is always written in italics, where genus name begin

 A species may sometimes be further divided into sub-

Gallus gallus varius (wild chicken)

 The generic name (Equus) can be used alone, to

Bacteria (Eubacteria) Bacteria

The Kingdom Animalia is sometimes termed the Metazoan.

You might also like

Pfad - The Proxy pFad of © 2024 Garber Painting. All rights reserved.