BIO 1306 Lecture Notes - Lecture 6: Binomial Nomenclature, Carl Linnaeus, Phylogenetic Tree
Document Summary
Legless lizards have evolved independently in several different groups. Phylogeny is the evolutionary history of a species or group of related species. For example, a phylogeny shows that legless lizards and snakes evolved from different lineages of legged lizards. The discipline of systematics classifies organisms and determines their evolutionary relationships. Taxonomy is the scientific discipline concerned with classifying and naming organisms. In the 18th century, linnaeus published a system of taxonomy based on resemblances. Two key features of his system remain useful today: two-part names for species and hierarchical classification. The two-part scientific name of a species is called a binomial. The first part of the name is the genus. The second part, called the specific epithet, is unique for each species within the genus. The first letter of the genus is capitalized, and the entire species name is italicized. Both parts together name the species (not the specific epithet alone)
