REN R205 Lecture Notes - Lecture 3: Botanical Name, Species Problem, Linnaean Taxonomy
6 Apr 2016
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Document Summary
Taxonomy: an information storage and retrieval system (a classification and thus an aid to memory). A summary of the evolutionary history of life. The basis for all of comparative biology. A science in its own right (a. k. a. systematics) Basic category: the broadest grouping for which you can form a composite mental image (e. g. chair, but not furniture) More inclusive than species, but usually less inclusive than family or order. Higher taxa (e. g. families, orders) and species are both harder to recognize than basic categories . Higher taxa are defined by features that evolved in the common ancestor, and that have been retained by all descendants throughout the group. These features are often few in number, and obscure (internal, dna, etc). Learning a group of animals is easier the more examples you look at, not harder. Ex) birds with dark, glossy feathers is a sort, not a kind.
