Download The Naming of Life: Marine Taxonomy

“The Naming of Life: Marine Taxonomy”
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MarineBio
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http://marinebio.org/oceans/marine-taxonomy.asp
Accessed:
July 25, 2015
Linnaean Taxonomic System
Carl Linnaeus was born in 1707 and died in 1778. He created the entire category of systematic
zoology and botany as well as a classification scheme—still used by biologists today. His
masterpiece was the Systema Naturae. Linnaeus invented the classification system to establish
consensus on plant and animal names and to understand complex evolutionary relationships
between organisms. The Linnaean taxonomic system begins with the most general category of
Domain or Kingdom and becomes increasingly specific until it ends with a specific genus and
species name derived from Greek and/or Latin roots.
Based on concepts introduced by his scientist predecessors, Linnaeus developed his system so
that each species had a Latin double name. The first name is the genus and the second is the
species name. This two-word naming system is called binomial nomenclature. The name is
always italicized with the genus capitalized and the species in lowercase letters.
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Domain
Eukaryota
Kingdom
Animalia
Phylum
Chordata
Class
Mammalia
Order
Primates
Family
Hominidae
Genus
Homo
Species
sapien
There are 8 general taxonomic groupings, starting with the most general and ending at the most
specific. The groupings are: Domain, Kingdom, Phylum (or Division for plants), Class, Order,
Family, Genus and Species. In some cases, subgroups are included for accuracy such as
subclass, superorder, suborder, and infraorder to name a few. The naming of life can become
incredibly complex. When the species grouping is not specific enough, subspecies categories
are added. Domains are also sometimes added above the kingdom level, if a high level of
generality is needed. On the other hand, if more detail is needed, tribes can be added between
family and genus categories and sections or series can be added between genus and species
categories.
The five Kingdoms are Monera, Protista, Fungi, Plantae, and Animalia. Under each Kingdom,
Phylums are listed and under each Phylum there are many Classes (and so on). With over
10,000 species, Kingdom Monera consists of unicellular bacteria and cyanobacteria. Kingdom
Monera is also the only kingdom made up of prokaryotic cells or cells without nuclei and
organelles not surrounded by a membrane. The other four kingdoms consist of eukaryotes or
cells with nuclei and organelles bound by a membrane. Kingdom Protista consists of 250,000
species of single celled protozoans and macroscopic algae. There are 100,000 species in
Kingdom Fungi and they are usually either heterotrophic haploid or dikaryotic cells. There are
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250,000 species in Kingdom Plantae and they all are autotrophic forms of plants that keep the
embryo on the female part of the plant. With over 1,000,000 species, Kingdom Animalia
consists of multicellular animals that lack a cell wall (plant cells have a rigid cell wall) and form a
blastula early in life.
To demonstrate how an organism is classified, let us use the
classification of the commonly named “ the blue whale”. The
information provided by this common name is not enough to put
the whale into any evolutionary relationship with other organisms.
Scientists however, call the blue whale by its scientific name—
Balaenoptera musculus. An example of how scientists would
classify and name a blue whale is as follows:

All whales are animals because they have more than one cell,
eat food and originate from a fertilized egg—so they first are
categorized into the most general category—Kingdom
Animalia.

Whales are placed into the Phylum Chordata (the category
below Kingdom) because they have a spinal cord and gill pouches. In fact, humans are
also in Phylum Chordata.

Because they are warm-blooded, produce milk for their young and have a heart with
four chambers, whales are in the Class Mammalia.

At the “Order” category, whales begin to be distinguished from humans and other land
mammals. Whales are classified as cetaceans because they live in the water all year
round. The suborder is Mysticeti due to the baleen plates in the mouths of whales,
helping them to filter in food.

Blue whales have folds around their throat that expand to take in large volumes of water
when feeding. Because not all whales have this characteristic, blue whales are placed
into the Family “Balaenidae”.

Within the Family is another group of species more immediately related to each other.
The “Genus” for blue whales is Balaenoptera.
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
The definition of a species includes many factors, especially the requirement that
individuals must be able to successfully breed with each other. The species name for
blue whales is musculus, meaning that in addition to other common traits, whales of the
species musculus are able to breed with each other and provide viable (living) offspring.
The final scientific name is Balaenoptera musculus with the genus capitalized and the
species name in lower case letters and both italicized.
The World Register of Marine Species
As of May, 2013:
219,847 accepted species; of which 201,765 checked (92%)
385,167 species names including synonyms
481,589 taxa (infraspecies to kingdoms)
"The aim of a World Register of Marine Species (WoRMS)
is to provide an authoritative and
comprehensive list of names of marine organisms, including information on synonymy. While
highest priority goes to valid names, other names in use are included so that this register can
serve as a guide to interpret taxonomic literature.
The content of WoRMS is controlled by taxonomic experts, not by database managers. WoRMS
has an editorial management system where each taxonomic group is represented by an expert
who has the authority over the content, and is responsible to control the quality of the
information. Each of these main taxonomic editors can invite several specialists of smaller
groups within their area of responsibility.
This register of marine species grew from the European Register of Marine Species (ERMS ),
and its combination with several other species registers maintained at the Flanders Marine
Institute (VLIZ ). Rather than building separate registers for all projects, and to make sure
taxonomy used in these different projects is consistent, we developed a consolidated database
called ‘Aphia'. A list of marine species registers included in Aphia is available below.
MarineSpecies.org is the web interface to this database. The WoRMS is an idea that is being
developed, and will combine information from Aphia with other authoritative marine species lists
which are maintained by others (e.g. AlgaeBase ,FishBase , Hexacorallia , NeMys
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)."