EasyBiologyHigh School (11–12)Diversity of Living Organisms › Biodiversity and NomenclatureDiversity of Living Organisms › Classification of Living OrganismsConceptual
A zoologist finds a frog in the Western Ghats.
Contributed by StemPy LabTry it on paper first. A hint, the key idea and the worked solution are here when you need them.
A zoologist finds a frog in the Western Ghats. Name the process in each action:
- (a) She records its size, colour and call.
- (b) She compares it with museum specimens and finds that it matches no known species.
- (c) She places it in a genus of similar frogs.
- (d) She gives it a two-word Latin name.
Need a reminder? The key ideaShow
The four basic processes of taxonomy are characterisation, identification, classification and nomenclature. Classification groups organisms by easily observable characters. Systematics, from the Latin systema, also takes the evolutionary relationships between organisms into account.
The worked solution
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Work it out on paper first. It is fine to get stuck or make a mistake: that is how we learn. When you are ready, go through the solution one step at a time, and check each step against your own.
(a) Characterisation: studying its features.
(b) Identification: finding out whether it is known. Here the answer is no, so it is a new species.
(c) Classification: placing it in a group.
(d) Nomenclature: naming it by the rules.
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