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• TauhouZosterops lateralis

Rules

Each species name has two parts

Canis familiaris

Genus name 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 ClassificationTax. 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 Cupid-like 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 ToadPhotograph courtesy Robin Moore, ILCPNosing 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 all-female 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/photogalleries/101207-top-ten-weird-new-animals-2010/#/newfoundland-deep-sea-species-octopus_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/pictures/120202-best-science-pictures-2011-scivis-visualization-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_protected_species_in_Hong_Kong#Animals

• http://www.hkoutdoors.com/hk-wildlife/deadliest-hong-kong-animals.html

• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Species_first_discovered_in_Hong_Kong

• http://www.gov.hk/en/residents/environment/conservation/naturalenvplantsanimals.htm

• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Smallest_organisms#Mammals

• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Largest_organisms