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L2 Animal Diversity Aims of the module Survey animal life, from protozoa to mammals, with emphasis on the evolutionary forces that have created this diversity Demonstrate fundamental unity of animal life, in terms of mechanisms that organise body plans
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Aims of the module • Survey animal life, from protozoa to mammals, with emphasis on the evolutionary forces that have created this diversity • Demonstrate fundamental unity of animal life, in terms of mechanisms that organise body plans • Illustrate the adaptations of animals to different lifestyles in different habitats • Examine the causes of mass extinctions and new waves of adaptive radiation, and analyse the interactions of human beings with other animals
Overview of lectures 1-3 • Coping with animal diversity • Classification and animal evolution • Origins of animals
http://taxonomy.zoology.gla.ac.uk/~rdmp1c/teaching/L2/AnimalDiversity/http://taxonomy.zoology.gla.ac.uk/~rdmp1c/teaching/L2/AnimalDiversity/
Species Scape Organisms drawn proportional to number of species in each group
Naming species • Common names (e.g., lion, löwe) • Scientific names (e.g., Panthera leo)
Linnaeus • Universal scientific naming system • Uses international language of science (in 1700’s this was Latin) • Each species has a binomial name
How to use names • First name is the genus or generic name and starts with a capital letter, e.g. Homo • Second name, the species epithet, starts with a lower case letter, e.g., sapiens • The two together are either underlined (Homosapiens) or in italics (Homo sapiens)
Names can indicate relationship, and can be descriptive • Homo sapiens (modern man) • Homo neanderthalensis (Neanderthal man) • Homo erectus (upright man) • Pan troglodytes (chimpanzee)
Names can tell us about relationships Cherie Booth
Name changes matter Cherie Booth Cherie Blair
Name changes matter Jonathon Roughgarden = Joan Roughgarden 23,200 hits 32,600 hits
Names can change…Leptodactylus fuscus (Schneider) Rana fusca Schneider 1802 Ranatyphonia Sonnini & Latreille 1803 Ranatyphonia Daudin 1824 Ranasibilatrix Wied 1826 Leptodactylustyphonius Fitzinger 1841 Cystignathustyphonius Dumeril & Bibron 1843 Leptodactylustyphonius Fitzinger 1858 Cystignathusfuscus Günther 1882 Leptodactylustyphonius Boulenger 1927 Leptodactylussibilatrix Müller 1935 Leptodactylussibilatrix Parker 1968 Leptodactylusfuscus Heyer
Birds of the Belgian Congo • AMNH expedition of 1909-1915 lists 11,131 birds • 8,827 of these don’t appear in modern bird lists • Either massive extinction (or faunal turnover) of African birds, or… • the names have changed since last century
Google searches give different results depending on name • Stegomyia aegypti1000 • Aedes aegypti36400 • Culex aegypti11300
Why multiple names for one species? • Ignorance of earlier literature • Dispute over species boundaries • Describe morphs of the same species as different species (e.g., colour, sex, or life history morphs)
Peacrabs of New Zealand Species A males females Species A hard stage females new species hard stage females Species A Species B
Furnarius leucopus Furnariphilus pagei Price and Clayton Immortality = having a species named after you
Taxonomy needs help • Making literature and specimens readily accessible • Making it easier to identify species • Making it easier to discover whether a species is new to science
Home pages for species • How would you find out about a particular species? • Create a home page for each species (you could contribute!)
Barcodes Only a few numbers needed to generate unique identifiers e.g., 10 x 10 x10 x 10 x 10 x 10 = 1,000,000
DNA as a biological barcode • Sequence the same stretch of DNA in all animals • Use sequence as a unique identifier • Quickly know whether sequence is new or not (compare with all known sequences) • Get some idea of what unknown species is (e.g., it’s like fly DNA) • Already used in microbiology and forensic zoology (e.g., whale meat)
Names and diversity • Zoologists have a well defined scheme for naming species • Names for species can change • Internet will play a big role in cataloguing life (you could help out) • DNA barcoding may be the future for species discovery and identification