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

Why we need taxonomy?

Systematics is at the same time the most
elementary and the most inclusive part of
(biology), most elementary because (organisms
cannot be discussed and treated in scientific
way until some taxonomy has been achieved,
and most inclusive because (systematics) in its
various branches gathers together, utilizes,
summarizes, and implements everything that is
known about organism, whether morphological,
physiological, physychological, or ecological.
Simpson, 1961.

 Allah has created every [living]

creature from water. And of them are
those that move on their bellies, and
of them are those that walk on two
legs, and of them are those that walk
on four. Allah creates what He wills.
Indeed, Allah is over all things
competent. (Al-Quran 24:45)

 And out of the ground the Lord God

formed every beast of the field and
every fowl of the air and brought
them unto Adam to see what he
would name them, and whatsoever
Adam called every living creature,
that was the name thereof. (Genesis
2:19)

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.

 4. It facilitates the study of anatomy,

physiology, and morphology of similar
organisms.
5. It useful in predicting characteristics
of newly discovered species.
6. It helps us to understand
evolutionary patterns that can provide
information to the origin and spread of
beneficial and harmful varieties.

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.

 5) Colonial era (South East Asia)

Georg Rumphius (1672-1702); German-Dutch worked
in Ambon, produced Herbarium Ambonense.
M. Fleischer; German worked in Bogor.
Stanford Raffles (1781-1826); British Navy, Malaya
and Indonesia.
Joseph Arnold (1782-1818); British Navy, died in
Sumatra.
Odoardo Becarri; Itallian Naturalist, Sumatra, Borneo.
Alfred Wallace; British Naturalist, Malay Archipelago.
Henry Keith; British forester, Sandakan.
H. N. Ridley; British botanist, Malaya.
E. B. Bartram; American botanist, Philippines.
Holttum; British botanist, Malaya.

Classification: Artificial

1) ArtificialBased upon one or few easily observable characters.

Problem:
1) Not reflecting the natural relations e. g. Linnean System.
*Find out what Linnean System for animal and plant.
2) The system does not reflect the evolutionary relationship
between the organisms.
3) Many unrelated organisms are placed in the same group
on the basis of their habitats (dwelling place) (For example,
whales and fishes in the same group).
4) Closely related organisms have been placed in different
groups because of the differences in their habitat, feeding
habits, etc.

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.

 1) Phenetics (Numerical Taxonomy)

Quantitative methods based on overall similarity.
The more similarities shared between 2 organisms
the more likely they belong to the same group.
Hence, produce phylogenetic classification.
Advantage:
1) Requires no previous knowledge of studied
taxon and its literature, only ability to make
observations and quantifications.
2) Easy for beginner to make classification.
Weakness:
1) Not differentiate between homology and
homoplasy
2) Strict empiricism, rejecting evolution theory.

 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.

The Generally Accepted

Categories
Categories
KINGDOM

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

Taxon vs. Category

Genus, Species Category
Felis domestica, Hibiscus rosasinensis Taxon

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

Example: Bracketed/Parallel Key

1. Animal without appendages.2

Animal With appendages..4
2. Animal with a shellSnail
Animal without shell.. 3
3. Unsegmented and scaly body Snake
Segmented and not scaly body.Earthworm
4. 3 pairs of appendages.5
more than 3 pairs of appendages.. Spider
5. With wings. Cockroach
Without wings Bull ant

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.

All science is either physics or stamp

collecting- Ernest Rutherford