Lecture 3 Flashcards
How can common names be confusing?
One organism can be named multiple different names. For example, in Japan fish are given different names based on their size and ship which becomes confusing for scientific studies
Systematics
A discipline focused on classifying organisms and determining their evolutionary relationships
The Binomial nomenclature history
Created by Carolus Linnaeus (1707-1778)
First person to consistently use a two part scheme to name organisms
Species Plantarum (The Species of Plants) - 1753
Binomial nomenclature
Organism’s scientific name is expressed in two parts, genus and species
Genus name: Given to a group of closely related organisms
Species name: Unique name given to a single kind of organism
Features of binomial nomenclature
Consistent names
Hierarchical and therefore expandable (Puts one category into a larger one)
Linee was already using a hierarchical system, grouping organisms into larger categories above genus-species
Rules for binomial nomenclature
Species name includes both names of the binomial
Both genus and species names are italicized
First letter of genus name in Upper case
Genus name can be abbreviated after the first appearance in the paper/report
Classification using the hierarchical system
Done by organizing organisms by grouping smaller related categories into larger ones
Each layer of classification are called
Taxon, all taxa names except for genus/species are written in non italics, first letter uppercase
International organizations that govern nomenclature
ICZN: International code of zoological nomenclature
ICN: International code of nomenclature for algae, fungi, plants
ICNP: International code of nomenclature of prokaryotes
ICTV: International committee on taxonomy of viruses
Interpreting systematics
Systematics are made by human beings and the classification may be quite arbitrary
How organisms were grouped into taxa may not
reflect the degree of diversity
Genus that contain only one existing species
Cheetahs are the only member of the genus acinonyx whereas genus felis include many small cats
Both of these genus’s clearly do not contain the same amount of diversity
