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Classification
Name: mike
Status: N/A
Age: N/A
Location: N/A
Country: N/A
Date: Around 1993
Question:
What is the most accurate way to classify animals in taxonomy?
Replies:
If by "most accurate", you mean the way that best approximates
classifying animals according to their genetic relatedness, and historical
ties, then the best way is called "cladistics." Cladistics is a method that
is used to split a group of animals (or any living thing) into two groups.
The process is completed until there are only two animals left, and they are
split. The criteria they use to split groups is based on "synapomorphies" a
50-cent word which means a SHARED and DERIVED CHARACTER. A CHARACTER is a
measure of an organism, like its color, or structure, or size. A DERIVED
character is one that is newly evolved. For instance, if you had a group of 5
fish, and 2 monkeys, you would guess (based on previous work) that the two
monkeys belong in one group, and the 5 fish in the other (and you would be
right). This is because the 2 monkeys SHARE many DERIVED CHARACTERS that the
fish do not share with the monkeys. One such derived character is the
presence of legs. Fossil evidence shows that vertebrate legs are newly
evolved with respect to fish. Fish came first, the vertebrate legs. You have
now created a simple cladogram. One branch is for fish, the other for
monkeys. By the by, taxonomy is the process of naming organisms, and is
neither accurate nor inaccurate. Phyletics is the science of determining the
beasts genetic relationships, and that can be inaccurate if one is not
careful.
Jim Murray
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Update: June 2012
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