Taxonomy and biodiversity.
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When we talk about biodiversity, we frequently encounter strange-sounding or looking words that stand for the names of plants or animals. They are Latin words and the whole shebang is called taxonomy. Since Treasure Nature will be covering more stuff about plants and animals, let’s have a run down of the relevant topics.
According to my textbook on the history of taxonomy, a dude named Carl Linnaeus was flabbergasted at the old way of naming organisms which was quite disorganized, to say the least. So he thought of a way to classify all organisms so each will belong to a certain branch of the tree of life and will be known by a name that will be accepted and recognized everywhere. BTW, Carl was, and still is, known as the Father of Taxonomy but this cool chap officially started his business with nature at the age of 24.
He thought about using Latin for his nomenclature because it is a dead language. By dead, he didn’t mean anything that smell awful but something that won’t change in all eternity and from culture to culture. Carl had a bright idea but the only thing I hate about nature is memorizing her Latin names.
Every known and classified organism has 2 Latin names, much like a surname and a first name (in that order). The first name is the Genus and the second is the Species Name (BTW, species is both singular and plural). Officially, they are written this way… Genus species. A Genus is a group. Much like the family Doe, which is the Genus while John, Jane, and baby are the species name.
For instance, the domestic cat belongs to the Genus Felis, 7 members in all. They belong to the biological family Felidae. Remember, whenever we see the suffix ceae or ae, it means a family. Daisy the Curly Cat and Chica and Pumuckl are breeds of Felis catus, members of the sub-family Felinae and family Felidae, under the order of Carnivora.
For a basic idea on how this naming system works, let’s take a look at the confusing taxonomy of the vanda orchid. The Vanda belongs to the family Orchidaceae. That should be easy enough. 
The problem lies in the fact the the term Vanda is actually the Genus name of approximately 50 species of orchids, not counting the hybrids.
So when we tell a horticulturist we want a Vanda, we’d best expect a blank stare. It’ll be of no help if we say Tiger Vanda as many flowers of the Genus bears the markings. Besides what we call a tiger might be a kitten to another. Interested to know the different species of Vanda? Here’s a list at Wikipedia.
Did Carl Linnaeus simplified things?
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July 22nd, 2008 at 3:21 am
also hamidatheherbalist.blogspot.com and thedesertsky.blogspot.com I may have asked you this before, but do you have an Entrecard widget here?
mysteryranchs last blog post..Cross-Blogging
July 22nd, 2008 at 3:22 am
Duh, it just came up
mysteryranchs last blog post..Cross-Blogging
July 22nd, 2008 at 5:47 pm
Perhaps it will be very easy to name organisms in this way only for him, for a common human being it will be almost impossible to remember new names and classes.
Violins last blog post..Jagjit Singh’s Hoton Se Choo Lo Tum
July 22nd, 2008 at 11:28 pm
Hm - this is a nice description of how taxonomy works. The problem is that this was originally meant for scientists for whom the Latin language was something common - not so for the public and especially not for the modern public who has problems to pronouce and write whole words without abbreviations not to speak of building a whole sentence!
LOL
Cordially,
Petra from Munich
Petra Voegtles last blog post..Roses in Red…what else
July 27th, 2008 at 11:26 pm
Hello all!
@ MysteryRanch
Sure hope it does.
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@ Violin and Petra
It’s indeed confusing, especially with Latin. But scientists had a problem identifying the same species across different cultures. It kinda worked though and for us regular folks, it’s not even necessary to know the entire taxonomy stuff, just enough so we know what those strange words are for.
July 28th, 2008 at 1:47 am
This is very interesting information keep up the good work!
August 1st, 2008 at 2:49 am
It apparently seems that he made things very difficult to everyone; but we also have to think that he may have had strong reasons to have done it, like making the names recognizable by as many people in the world as he possibly could, since we all speak very different languages.
Great post, congrats!!
August 3rd, 2008 at 6:46 am
Complete Information for newbie like me. Please keep writing. I have been bookmark your site
August 6th, 2008 at 9:03 pm
Hi!
Thanks for the nice comments. Much appreciated.