Classification and Naming

Naming Warm-up ActivityDirections:1. Go to website and click on your group’s image.

2. With your group, come up with a name for your bird that:

a) Describes its main features

b) Could be used to communicate about that type of bird with scientists in Oxford

3. Share your bird name with the class.

Song sparrow (Melospiza melodia) Red-winged blackbird (Agelaius phoenicieus

Why Naming is Important▪ Same species can look very different (male vs

female)

▪Different species can look alike

▪Want to be sure you are talking about the same organism!

Pacific Wren (Troglodytes pacificus)

Winter Wren (Troglodytes hiemalis)

History of Naming (pre-1700s)▪No standardized way to name species

▪ Species names were mainly descriptive, consisting of multiple words (polynomial nomenclature)▪ E.g. Plantago foliis ovato-lanceolatus pubescentibus, spica cylindrica, scapo tereti ("Plantain

with pubescent ovate-lanceolate leaves, a cylindric spike and a terete scape")

▪Drawbacks:▪ Very long names

▪ Difficult to tell apart similar species (especially in different areas of the world)

History of Naming (1700s)▪Binomial nomenclature developed

by Carolus Linnaeus in the 1700s

▪Published book “Species Plantarum” in 1753 with the names of thousands of species

▪Binomial nomenclature: system of providing two names in a species’ scientific name (“bi”= two; “nomial”= name)

Binomial Nomenclature: Rules▪ Scientific name made of two parts: genus name

and specific epithet

▪Genus name (pl. genera)▪ Name for small group of closely related organisms

▪ Always capitalized

▪ Specific epithet:▪ Distinguishes a species from others in the same genus

▪ Always lowercase

▪Both words are italicized (or underlined when hand-written)

▪Both words are in Latin (or Latinized)

Homo sapiens

genus specific epithet

Binomial Nomenclature: Examples

Binomial Nomenclature: Examples

Binomial Nomenclature: Examples

http://courses.washington.edu/bot113/spring/LectNotes/2014/week1mon.pdf

Binomial Nomenclature:Benefits▪ Every species can be identified with only two words

▪ Same name is used world-wide

▪ Names generally stable:

▪ Latin is a ‘dead language’

▪ Newly discovered species are given new names

▪Often descriptive/informative▪ Vinca minor vs Vinca major; small vs large periwinkle

flowers

▪ Pelecanus erythrorhynchos (American white pelican); “erythro” means red while “rhynchos” means nose

▪ Antigone canadensis (sandhill crane); native to CanadaFurther reading on binomial nomenclature: http://www.newworldencyclopedia.org/entry/Binomial_nomenclature

Why Classify?▪To help correctly identify organisms

▪To know the origin and evolutionary history of organisms

▪To understand and develop the phylogenetic relationshipsbetween different groups of organisms

TaxonomyTaxonomy: the science of naming organisms and assigning them to groups

Taxon (pl. taxa): group of organisms that share important characteristics and are evolutionarily related (similar to ‘clade’)

Taxonomy

Project Link

Rainbow unicorn (ancestor)

brown

loss of colour

boringness

goatishness

Goat (modern animal)

A CB

Project Link

Domestic goatCapra aegagrus

Rainbow unicornUnico roygbivisus

Domestic sheepOvis aries

Rainbow unicornUnico roygbivisus

Plain unicornUniqla blancus

Brown unicornUniqla brunus

brown

loss of colour

boringness

goatishness

Taxa:

- Genus “Uniqla” consists of plain unicorn & brown unicorn

- Order “Noncolor” consists of plain unicorn,brown unicorn, domestic sheep, domestic goat

- Family “Domestiformes” consists of domestic sheep and domestic goat (Note: I can tell they are not a genus because of their different genus names)

Project LinkNotes:▪ Look up the real Latin name of your modern animal on google; other names

may also be googled but at least one must be invented (your mythical creature)▪ Feel free to look at the following link for inspiration/words you might use in your invented

names https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Latin_and_Greek_words_commonly_used_in_systematic_names

▪ Invented names do not have to be ‘real’ Latin…as long as they sound Latin-ish, is ok!

▪Not all named animals from the tree need to show up in your story

▪No rules for taxa names: have fun with it! However, make sure they describe clades▪ (Technically there are some patterns…e.g. Family names for animals end in “-idae“ and

family names of plants end in “-aceae”, while the Order names for birds end in “-formes”…however, you do not have to worry about these patterns unless you want to.)

Your Task- Read: ▪ 15-1 in textbook▪ https://animaldiversity.org/animal_names/scientific_name (google “ADW scientific

name” and it should pop up)▪ 15-2 (recommend: take notes as you read)▪ Recommended: skim 15-3 for main ideas and for much amazement

- Answer these questions for handing in:▪ Why is it so important to have a unified classification system for living things?▪ Create a venn diagram comparing the benefits and drawbacks to both binomial

nomenclature and common names. (Not necessarily covered in powerpoint).

- Part 2b of project

- Work on project (due March 7/8)