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4 History of Taxonomy
4 History of Taxonomy
Taxonomists- biologists
who study taxonomy
2
Systematics
the classification of
organisms in terms of their
natural relationships
More than 200 years ago,
organisms grouped
according to similarities.
Modern biologists consider
not only visible similarities,
but also similarities in
embryos, chromosomes,
proteins, and DNA
Eastern
Hippocrates
Aristotle
Theophrastus
Dioscorides
Plinius
Scientific
stagnation
Dark/Middle
during
Ages
Development
of the
Doctrine
of
Signatures
-suggested that God
marked objects a sign
of
their
purpose;
signatures
Renaissance
brought
new studies of plants
by herbalists
Hepatica nobilis
Jakob Bohme,
Doctrine of
Signatures
Joseph Pitton de
Tournefort-
John Ray
Types of Classification
Downward Classification was the principle of
logical division, into two subordinated groups:
animals---with or without blood, animals with
blood ---hairy or not hairy, and so forth.
-this dominated until the
end of 18th century
-17th -18th century ---Animal
Taxonomy
made
little
conceptual progress thru
Willughby(1635-1672), on
birds; Reaumur (1683-1757)
on insects
Types of Classification
Upward classification
-this method consists of assembling species by
inspection into groups of similar or related species
and forming a hierarchy of higher taxa by again
grouping similar taxa of the next lower rank
Buffon (1749) : It would seem to me
that the only way to design an
instructive and natural method is to
group together things that resemble
each other and to separate things that
differ from each other.
This thought was systematically applied
by the botanist Adanson (1763) and was
practiced by nearly all post-Linnaean
zoologists, who delimited taxa by
inspection and through an evaluation of
numerous characters.
Global
flora
Species
Plantarum 1753 and Systema
Naturae 1758 global fauna
-He introduced in these books
a binary form of species
names called trivial names
for both plants and animals.
-for each species he created
an epithet that could be used
together with the genus name
Carolus
Carolus Linnaeus
1)
2)
Scientific Name:
Genus: 1st word: consist of closely related species
Species: 2nd word: consist of description of the species.
Each category represents a level of grouping from larger,
more general to smaller, more specific categories
Rules:
1)
2)
3)
Examples:
15
Test Yourself
25 sentimo
5 piso
1 piso
10 piso
Species-smallest unit of
classification, a group of
organisms that is isolated
reproductively from similar
groups
Genus- a group of related
species
Family- a group of related
genus
Order- a group of related
families
Class- a group of related
orders
Phylum or Division- a group
of related class
Kingdom- a group of related
phyla
20
Linnaeus
categories
Species
Panthera
Genus
Family
Phylum
Kingdom
Domain
Felidae
Carnivora
Order
Class
Panthera pardus
Mammalia
Chordata
Animalia
Animalia
Eukarya
Eukarya
Porter (1967)
Augustin Pyramus de Candolle (1778-1841)made 1st attempts to create rules for botanical
taxonomy in Theory elementaire de la
botanique 1813
He stated that published names should have
priority according to the date of publication,
starting with Linnaeus
Congress on Paris, 100 botanist adopted the
rules in a book of Alphons de Candolle
(1806-1873), Lois de nomenclature adoptee
from 1867
During the yrs. of 1891 to 1898 German
botanist Otto Kuntze (1843-1907) published a
controversial
work
Revisio
generum
Plantarum, in which he applied Candolles
laws from 1867 rigidly. He changed 1000
generic names and 30 000 species names.
Nomina
Species
Panthera
Orde
r
Family
Panthera
Mephitis
Canis
Canis
Lutra lutra
pardus
mephitis
familiaris
lupus
(European
(leopard)(striped skunk) otter)
(domestic dog) (wolf)
Genus
Felidae
Mephitis
Lutra
Mustelidae
Carnivora
Canis
Canidae
Each
branch point
Leopard
Domestic cat
Common ancestor
Determining evolutionary
relationships
Plant taxonomists use structural evidence to
classify dandelions and sunflowers under family,
Asteraceae by similarity in flower and fruit
structures. Evolutionary history then is inferred.
2. Geographical Distribution
Galapagos
Finches
Crushing
Bills
Probing
Bills
Parrot
Bills
Ancestral
Species
Graspin
g Bills
32
Determining evolutionary
relationships
Both the number and structure of chromosomes, as
seen during mitosis and meiosis, provide evidence
about relationships among species.
Charles
Darwin
(1809-1882) provided
concepts of
evolutionary change
through time
Subsequent botanists
incorporated these into
classifications
A different way to view
taxa groupings on an
evolutionary tree
Forerunners of Phylogenetic
Systems
Ernst Haeckel (18341919) and August Wilhelm
Eichler (1839-1878)
started construction of
evolutionary trees
Haeckel established the
term phylogeny
20th century was
dominated by extended
phenetics (looking for
similarities and
differences to create
systematic relationship)
Phylocode
Kevin de Queiroz and Jacques Gauthier in 1990s laid
theoretical foundation to a new nomenclatural code for
all organisms, the Phylocode.