6.LECTURE 6 - Taxonomy
6.LECTURE 6 - Taxonomy
6.LECTURE 6 - Taxonomy
And the glory of God could be studied in any of his creatures, from
the lowliest ones up to the rhinoceroses and elephants Mayr,
1982
Suggested references:
The Growth of Biological Thought
Diversity, Evolution, and Inheritance.
Ernst Mayr, 1982.
Principles of Systematic Zoology.
Mayr & Ashlock, 1991.
The Origin of Species. Charles Darwin
Taxonomyof angiosperms for
university students.B. Pandey.
Taxonomy: Evolution at work. M.
Daniel
Taxonomy?
Science of identifying and naming
species, and organizing/placing them
into existent system of classification.
(BNHM, London).
Systematics?
The scientific study of the kinds and
diversity of organisms and of any and
all relationships among them
(Simpson, 1961)
Taxonomy
Systemati
cs
Importance of taxonomy
1. All organisms must have name. The
names given to organisms by taxonomists
don't just tell us what they (species) are
called, but also help us to understand the
relationships among them (species).
2. Allowing efficient communication among
scientists.
3. It enable strategies for protection and
conservation of endangered and
threatened species to be developed.
Classification?
Consists in arranging/grouping of
individual objects into categories or
classes
History of classification
1) Ancient civilization
Aristotle (384-322 b. c.); his main work
is Historia animalium (History of Animal),
describes various marine animals which
information he obtained from fisherman
and folklore.
Theophrastus (371- 287 b. c.); student
of Aristotle, adopted no formal system to
classify plant in his Inquiry into Plants.
2) The Herbalist
The interest was not on the
classification per se but based upon
the usage.
Classified plants into grasses,
bulbose, rushes, cornes or according
to smell, e.g sweet smelling.
Arranged plants in alphabetical
orders.
Caspar Bauhin (1623); author of
Pinax, 6000 plants are described and
assigned to a genus and species.
3) Pre Linnean
Andrea Cesalpino (1519-1603);
author of De Plantis (The Plants),
follower of Theophratus, divided
plants into trees, shrubs,
undershrubs, and herbaceous.
John Ray (1627-1705); author of
Historia Plantarum (History of Plants),
dealed with 18655 species and give
definition to the species category, the
pioneer of early natural classification.
Others;
Joseph Pitton de Tournefort (16561708); realized the wealth of exotic
flora, author of Methode.
Luca Ghini (1490-1556); the first to
press and dry plant, established first
university botanic garden at Pisa
(1544), second was established at
Podova (1545)
Botanical Gardens
Kew Botanical
Garden
Cibodas Botanical
Garden
Bogor Botanical
4) Linnean
Carl Linne (1707-1778)
His magnum opus, Species Plantarum (The Species
of Plants) 1753 is the prime starting point for the
plant nomenclature (ICBN) as it exists today.
Systema Naturae 1758 is the prime starting point
for todays zoological nomenclature (ICZN).
The complete series of hierarchy is called Linnean
Hierarchy.
Classified plants based on sexual systems.
Others; Buffon, author of Historie naturelle
(Natural History)
Lamarck, pupil of Buffon.
Charles Darwin.
Classification: Artificial
Classification: Natural
2) Natural Based upon many features internal as well as external and
considers information from many branches of biology i.e
anatomy, biochemical, morphology, embryology, cytology.
Advantage:
1) It avoids the heterogeneous grouping of unrelated
organisms.
2) It helps in placing only related groups of organisms
together.
3) It indicates the natural relationships among organisms.
4) It also provides a clear view on the evolutionary
relationship between different groups of living organisms.
2) Phylogenetic (Cladistics)
Organism are classified and ranked
exclusively on the basis of recency of
common descent.
The method use only shared derived
characters (synapomorphies).
Taxa with same synapomorphies are
said to be related.
The intention is to produce an
estimate of history (evolution) of
taxa.
!Assumption in cladistics:
1) New species arise by bifurcations of
the original lineage (the lineage
always splits in two).
2) All species in a grouping must share
a common ancestor.
3) All species derived from a common
ancestor must be included in the
taxon.
The application of these requirements
results in the following terms being
used to describe the different ways in
Grouping
Monophyletic: grouping is one in
which all species share a common
ancestor and all species derived from
that common ancestor are included.
Why this group is
monophyletic?
Grouping
Paraphyletic: grouping is one in which all
species share a common ancestor, but not
all species derived from that common
ancestor are included.
Turtle, lizards, crocodiles are grouped as
reptiles.
Why Reptiles is
paraphyletic group?
Grouping
Polyphyletic: grouping is one in which
species that do not share an immediate
common ancestor are lumped together,
while excluding other members that would
link them
Problems in Phylogenetic
Impossible to reconstruct the past
evolutionary pathway.
Hardly possible to devise a
satisfactory method of designing a
branching pattern by means of a
single linear sequence
Taxonomic Hierarchy
Taxon is a group of organisms that
share a definite set of character.
There are 7 main taxonomic
categories:
Kingdom, Phylum (Division), Class,
Order, Family, Genus, Species.
Theoretically there is no limit to the
number contained in a hierarchy.
Plantae
Fungi
Animalia
PHYLUM/DIVISIO Tracheophyta
N
Ascomycota
Chordata
CLASS
Angiospermops
ida
Saccharomycete
s
Mammalia
ORDER
Rosales
Saccharomycetal
es
Carnivora
FAMILY
Rosaceae
Saccharomyceta
ceae
Canidae
GENUS
Rosa
Saccharomyces
Canis
SPECIES
canina
cerevisiae
lupus
Dichotomous Key
Is a tool, use in identifying
organisms.
Contains lead and the two
contrasting choices formed couplet
Two types:
1) Bracketed or Parallel Key
2) Yoked or Indented Key
Example: Yoked/Indented
Key
1. Animal without appendages....2
2. Animal with shell.. .Snail
2. Animal without shell3
3. Unsegmented and scaly body.....Snake
3. Segmented and smooth body....Earthworm
3. Animal with appendages...4
4. 3 pairs appendages.5
5. With wings..................Cockroach
5. Without wings... Bull ants
4. more than 3 appendagesSpider
Biological nomenclature
a two name system for writing scientific names.
The genus name is written first, followed by epithet, to
form species name.
E. g. Felis catus, Homo sapien,
Formal scientific name should bears the name of the
author at the end.
In animal, it is common to include the year of designation.
E.g. Quercus alba L., Fissidens nobilis Griff.
Abba cadabra Fandi H., Shafeeqana immaculatus A. K.
Fadzil
Depended on International Codes of Nomenclature i.e
ICBN, ICZN,
Classification systems
Five kingdoms; Monera, Protista,
Fungi, Plantae, Animalia. (Whittaker
1969).
Three domains: Eukarya, Eubacteria,
Archea.
Six kingdoms: Eubacteria,
Archaebacteria, Protista, Fungi,
Plantae and Animalia Eukarya.