1. Course Website:
http://homepages.ucalgary.ca/~dsikes/courses.htm
Check weekly for lecture updates, readings, etc.
Course Content:
Theory & Practice of Systematics
Not taxon-specific
Introduction 25 % alpha taxonomy
to 75 % phylogenetics
Biosystematics - Lecture 2
Introduction to Biological Systematics Lecture 2:
Introduction to Biological Systematics
Website, Course Outline Outline: The role and value of Systematics
Readings (text…, reserve reading room) Taxonomy (! taxonomy) - in decline?
Midterm & final exam Describing species
Project Identification, Classification
“Labs” - Fridays meet in BI 182 Collections, Conservation
Beetle exercise Phylogenetics (" taxonomy)
Debates (discussions of readings) Phylogeny
5 Questions - bonus Classification (?)
Open office hours - make appointment Evolutionary processes / patterns
Conservation
Biosystematics Godfray (2002)
Lecture 1: Introduction to biological systematics (value)
Mayr, E.& P. D. Ashlock (1991) Principles of Systematic Zoology, 2nd • alpha taxonomy / phylogenetics
Edition, McGraw-Hill, Inc., NY. pp. 1-8. [PDF]
(descriptive taxonomy / phylogenetic tax.)
*Godfray, H. C. J. (2002) Challenges for taxonomy. Nature 417: 17-19.
- suffering from lack of prestige & resources
Flowers et al. (2002) Does the decline in systematic biology matter?
Chapter 4 of report to the House of Lords (UK). Select Committee on
Science & Technology. [webpage] • Solutions?
Lecture 2: Value of biosystematics continued; History of taxonomy
*Gould, S. J. 2000. Linnaeus's Luck? Natural History. Vol 109 iss.7 :
• “web monographs” ?
(September): 19-25, 66-76.
Mayr, E.& P. D. Ashlock (1991) Principles of Systematic Zoology, 2nd
• unitary taxonomy ?
Edition, McGraw-Hill, Inc., NY. pp. 9-18. [PDF - see link under lecture 1]
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2. Gould - Linnaeus’s Luck ! (alpha) taxonomy
“Descriptive” taxonomy “Systematic biology has contracted at
- Describing British universities to such an extent that it
- Cataloging may be in danger of extinction as a
- Classifying sustainable discipline.”
- Stamp collecting?
- 1992 the Dainton Report on Systematics
Hypothetico-deductive taxonomy in the UK
- Descriptions based on theory &
hypotheses
- Seek a ‘natural’ classification
! (alpha) taxonomy ! (alpha) taxonomy
Demographic trends in alpha taxonomy: “If we found these demographic trends in a newly
discovered species of lemur, we would bring
specimens into a zoo and start a programme of
1990 survey captive breeding.
But if these trends continue among taxonomists and
63% of taxonomists > 46 years old systematists, how soon will it be before we cannot
recognize a new species of lemur?”
Only 8% < 35 years old
Gaston, K. J. and R. M. May. 1992. Taxonomy of
taxonomists. Nature 356: 281-28
! (alpha) taxonomy ! (alpha) taxonomy
Systematics training in universities - Results of this decline -
- molecular systematics (your text) - systematists who can’t do identifications
- phylogenetics - orphaned taxa
- rarely any training in alpha taxonomy - fewer people to describe species
- knowledge & skills are being lost - lots of new trees, but fewer taxonomic
changes
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3. “We sit on the brink of ! (alpha) taxonomy
a crisis”
Solutions -
- Modernization - new technology
- digitization, web-publication, DNA
Not enough trained - NSF PEET grants
taxonomists to describe
remaining 5-15 million
(Partnership for Enhancing Expertise
species - even if we in Taxonomy)
had the money
Biosystematics Classification - usage of term
Standard:
identification
character “Activity of grouping entities or phenomena
evolution
and giving names to the resulting groups”
descriptions phylogeny
-Wiley (1981) p. 194
collections classification biogeography
Classification - usage of term Classification - usage of term
Actual usage today: - Not ‘identification’
“Activity of grouping entities or phenomena - Not phylogenetic analysis
and giving names to the resulting groups” - often used as such (e.g. “3 schools of classification”)
- implications are wrong
Phylogenetic analysis - Not a phylogeny
- often thought that “tree = classification”
Classification
- many students misunderstand this
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4. Classification - usage of term Example Classification
So what is it? Phylum Annelida
Class Polychaeta
- is an arrangement of names - names for Family Siboglinidae
groups (of names…) Class Clitellata
Subclass Oligochaeta
- Linnaeus prepared classifications Subclass Hirudinea
Class Echiura
- many modern phylogeneticists do not Phylum Sipuncula
-new trees are not new classifications
-new classifications can be based on new We’ll do more on classifications and trees later
trees however
Trees Classification Biosystematics - value
= Names
1. Provide Classifications for our millions of
species
Provide natural classifications
= reflect evolutionary history
= based on sound phylogenetic analyses
Natural classifications allow predictions
Giribet et al
Nature 2001
Biosystematics - value Biosystematics - value
Allow prediction of attributes of taxa not yet Bad, “unnatural” classifications
studied can be disastrous
- medicines (antibiotics, etc.) e.g. Gypsy moth - brought to Boston by a
- biological control agents frenchman, Leopold Trouvelot
- predict ecological relationships - hoped to start a business in silk
- extinct taxa - singing dinosaurs? - chose this moth because of its name at
that time: Bombyx dispar
- oriental silk moth = Bombyx mori
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5. Biosystematics - value Biosystematics - value
Moth was no good for silk (Bad) Taxonomy used for conservation
assumed 1 species when there were 2+
Was very good at eating native trees
Resulted in
Escaped & is still a major pest species - possible extinction of a subspecies
- near extinction of a second species
Current name: Lymantria dispar (extinction of 10 of 40 populations)
(different superfamily from Bombyx !)
Described in Nature: 347, 177-179 (1990)
Biosystematics - value Biosystematics - value
2. Infer phylogenies Classified in their own phylum
- inform our classifications
- to know what a organism “is” requires Only in last few decades have we determined
phylogeny they are Arthropods
e.g. tongue worms - pentastomids specifically Maxillopod Crustaceans!
bizarre parasites of vertebrates
- what are they?
Biosystematics - value Evolution of Swim Bladders & Lungs
3. Understanding evolutionary processes • Both derived from outpocketings of the gut
a tree is required to study: • Both structures hold gas
- Cospeciation
– Swim bladders to adjust buoyancy
- Historical biogeography, phylogeography
– Lungs for gas exchange
- Macroevolutionary patterns
explosive radiations • Tetrapods & some fish have lungs
extinctions • Many fish have swim bladders
- Trait correlations
Are warning colors related to the evolution of Which is the came first?
gregariousness?
Need a tree…
- Adaptations
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6. Biosystematics - value Biosystematics - value
Sound natural classifications or phylogenies Conservation Biology - Biodiversity crisis
enable biologists to
• intelligently frame their hypotheses
• understand the direction of evolutionary
change
• know which taxa are appropriate for
comparative studies
Human population
Biosystematics - value Biosystematics - value
Conservation Biology - Biodiversity crisis Conservation Biology - Biodiversity crisis
- Massive habitat destruction Phylogenies help identify unique lineages
- ca. 1 species extinction / 20 minutes e.g. “living fossils”
- current extinction rates 100 to 1,000 times e.g. a duckbilled platypus
greater than “normal”
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7. Biosystematics History of Taxonomy
Systematics "is at the same time the most elementary Father of Biological
and most inclusive part of biology, most elementary Classification
because organisms cannot be discussed or treated in
a scientific way until some taxonomy has been
Used concept of nested sets
achieved, and most inclusive because systematics in
its various branches gathers together, utilizes,
summarizes, and implements, everything that is Named various taxa
known about organisms, whether morphological,
physiological, or ecological.” e.g. Coleoptera
“Sheath-wing”
Paraphrased from George Gaylord Simpson's book, “Animal Taxonomy” Aristotle
Oldest scientific names still in
384-322 B.C.
use
Phylum Annelida
History of Taxonomy
Botanical taxonomy developed faster than
Class Class Class zoological
Polychaeta Clitellata Echiura
Subclass
Oligochaeta
Subclass
Hirudinea
Plants used for medicines & foods
Theophrastes 371-287 B.C. - classified
500 species of plants (e.g. Asparagus)
Nested Sets Books on plants (herbals) with illustrations,
descriptions & names became common
History of Taxonomy History of Taxonomy
Herbals copied without improvements Phrase names:
throughout the Middle Ages Joseph Pitton de Tournefort - paved the
way for Linnaeus
Very little progress until the 15th century -
Gutenberg’s printing press Key work published in 1700 instituted the
genus name
Botanists began using phrase names -
descriptive names of species e.g. Mentha floribus spicatis, foliis oblongis serratis
“mint with flowers in a spike, leaves oblong and
Latin, usually < 12 words toothed”
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8. History of Taxonomy History of Taxonomy
First Bioinformatics crisis - too many new The binominal system was actually first
species & names, chaos reigned used by Gaspard Bauhin (1623) but
never caught on
Linnaeus instituted a simpler, more
organized system - binominal Linnaeus reintroduced & imposed it on the
nomenclature, 1753, [6,000 plants] world - chaos was averted
based on binomen - species name Zoological nomenclature began with the
composed of two words - as an 10th edition of Linnaeus’s Systema
abbreviation for the full phrase names Naturae (1758) - why this edition?
(note: not binomial nomenclature)
History of Taxonomy You should be able to
Linnaeus’s 5 ranks:
Describe the decline of alpha taxonomy &
Kingdom - Animalia ideas to reverse it
Class - Insecta
Understand the term Classification (not
Order - Coleoptera
easy!)
Genus - Silpha
Species - Silpha vespillo Describe the value of phylogenetics
All animals in 312 genera Describe the key people & their influence on
the development of Systematics
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