Taxonomic Categories and Taxonomical Aids

Name: Taxonomic Categories and Taxonomical Aids
Author: StemPy Lab

A lion, a tiger and a cat look alike in many ways, and a dog is a little different. How does a biologist put this in order? In this course we climb the ranks from species to kingdom. Then we visit the tools of a taxonomist: the herbarium, the botanical garden, the museum, the zoo, and the key that finds a name step by step.

3 lessons, about 1 h 25 min3 simulations11 problems6 practice questionsPython in every lesson

Created by StemPy Lab

Course outline (3 lessons)

Lesson 1about 30 min
Species, genus and the taxonomic hierarchy
Classification is a ladder of groups inside groups. The seven main ranks, from the smallest to the largest, are species, genus, family, order, class, phylum (division in plants) and kingdom. A species is a group of individuals with fundamental similarities. The higher the rank, the more organisms in the group and the fewer features they share. Each group at any rank is called a taxon.
1 simulation2 practice questions1 Python program6 problems1 Python lab
Read the lesson
Lesson 2about 30 min
Taxonomical aids: collections and keys
Taxonomical aids help in the identification of plants and animals. A herbarium holds dried and pressed plant specimens on sheets. Botanical gardens keep living plants with labels. Museums hold preserved specimens, and zoological parks keep live wild animals for the study of their food and behaviour. A key uses pairs of contrasting characters, called couplets, to find a name step by step. Floras, manuals and monographs are books of information.
1 simulation2 practice questions1 Python program5 problems1 Python lab1 question set1 note
Read the lesson
Lesson 3about 25 min
Climbing the ladder: how big is each rank?
Each rank holds the one below it, so the groups grow as we climb. The human's genus Homo has one living species, and the family Hominidae about 8. The order Primata has about 500, the class Mammalia about 6,500, the phylum Chordata about 70,000 and the kingdom Animalia about 1.5 million. Such counts are best read as powers of ten. The bigger the group, the fewer features all its members share.
1 simulation2 practice questions1 Python program
Read the lesson

Test Your Learning

The Living World: Challenge Paper

10 questions · 20 min

Not started

Your teacher

StemPy Lab

← All Courses

← Diversity and the Naming of OrganismsNext →

More onDiversity of Living Organisms › Taxonomic Hierarchy and Aids Diversity of Living Organisms › Classification of Living Organisms

Discussion (0)

Loading…

Taxonomic Categories and Taxonomical Aids

Course outline (3 lessons)

Species, genus and the taxonomic hierarchy

Taxonomical aids: collections and keys

Climbing the ladder: how big is each rank?

Test Your Learning

Your teacher

Discussion (0)