Lecture 1. The Science of Taxonomy and Systematics (video) Flashcards
Mainly focus on describing, naming, and classifying organisms
Taxonomy
- scientists who study plants and animals, classify them and name new species
- Discover new species, and identify species that are already known, is critical to understanding and protecting them
Taxonomists
What do Taxonomists do
- study and classify plants and animals
- name new species
- Discovering new species, and identifying species that are already known, is critical to understanding and protecting them
- Study of nature and origin of natural population of living organisms, both present and past (Myers, 1952)
- Production of cladograms that link taxa through their observed variation
- Conceptual and procedural relationships among and within areas of it
Systematics
Triad of Systematics
- Taxonomy
- Study of the Process of Evolution
- Study of Phylogeny
Provides the names, the categories, and the boxes where we put organisms in
taxonomy
Use as a way to differentiate different populations and to create certain changes and speciation through reproductive isolation, natural selection, the origin of species, hybridization of organism
study of the process of evolution
- divergence and/or development of all groups
- use cladograms or the tree of life
study of phylogeny
groups in the study of phylogeny triad
- mode
- time
- place
What do Biosystematists do
- study the big picture
- seek to ensure that classification of organisms is founded on evolutionary relationships
- allow predictions about properties and traits of organisms
result of billions of years of evolution on living organisms
diversity
- anti-cancer compound
- found in Taxol plant
paclitaxel
- anti-pain medicine
- found in snail poison
- more powerful than morphine
conotoxin
Taxonomy and Systematics as a Useful Science
- Feeding the World
- Discovering the Drugs of the Future
- Improving Human Health
- Enabling Industrial Innovation
- Enabling Sustainability
- taxonomy of pests and pathogens
- Discovering biological control agents
- Documenting wild relatives of crop plants and animals to discover genes that may improve yields or resist disease
- Exploring the taxonomy of soil and aquatic microbes
feeding the world
Fifty percent (50%) of all pharmaceutical compounds registered for use in the USA are derived from, or were originally discovered in living organisms
discovering the drugs of the future
- Many disease-causing organisms have not yet been named or studied
- Ecologists and farmers of the human microbiome carefully manipulate our internal biodiversity to cure diseases and keep us healthy
improving human health
Organisms that produce medicines, fuels, plastics, and other organic chemicals
enabling industrial innovation
By characterizing biodiversity, taxonomists and biosystematist provide the framework and tools by which others can study change and resilience of the Earth system in the face of past, present and future stresses.
enabling sustainability
forefronts or the initial stages of sustainability
systematics and taxonomy
threat from human-induced environmental change
- global warming
- pollution
- extractive industries
Other Fields of Sciences Taxonomy and Systematics Support
- Ecology
- Genetics
- Geology
- Earth Science
- Oceanography
- Climate Science
- Agricultural Science
- Medicine
- Environmental Science
- Conservation Science
By ensuring that species and other taxa are scientifically robust, well characterized, and can be accurately identified
Ecology
By providing evolutionary and taxonomic framework that allows understanding of genetic diversity and evolution
Genetics
By characterizing and documenting fossils that form basis of much of stratigraphy and, hence, key to mining and oil and gas exploration
Geology
By enabling documentation of biogeochemical cycles that help stabilize and drive Earth systems
Earth Science
By discovering and documenting organisms that underpin and drive ocean productivity.
Oceanography
By enabling past, current, and future climate change to be tracked, through an understanding of their effects on species and ecological communities.
Climate Science
By characterizing pests, diseases, beneficial organisms, and wild relatives of crop plants.
Agricultural Science
By enabling deeper, more accurate knowledge of microbiome, i.e. human pathogens and probiotics.
Medicine
By discriminating species and supporting and understanding of life histories and management of natural resources and species stocks
Environmental Science
By providing authoritative species names that underpin conservation planning and legislation
Conservation Science
Rise of botany and zoology as applied sciences
16th century
Extensive botanical and zoological taxonomy (identification)
18th and 19th century
Introduction of the theory of evolution
19th century
Taxonomy vs. Systematics:
based on what it refers
Taxonomy: classification of organisms
Systematics: study and classification of organisms for the determination of the evolutionary relationship of organisms
Taxonomy vs. Systematics:
based on where it is involved
Taxonomy: classification and naming of organisms
Systematics: classification, naming, cladistics, and phylogenetics
Taxonomy vs. Systematics:
based on evolutionary history of organisms
Taxonomy: does not deal with the evolutionary history of organisms
Systematics: deals with the evolutionary history of organisms
Taxonomy vs. Systematics:
based on future studies
Taxonomy: change with future studies
Systematics: does not change with future studies
