The taxonomy is the science in which organisms are classified and set parameters differences, creating families, branches and joint races. The taxonomy is studied under the taxonomic system of Linnaeus, in honor of the biologist Carlos Linnaeus (1707 - 1778), it is attributed to be the most complete and accurate; however, over time modifications have been made but it is basically the division of organisms into 7 classes, called Taxa: Kingdom, Phylum, Class, Order, Family, Genus and Species.
What is taxonomy
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It is a branch of biology responsible for classifying and naming all existing organic species, giving them categories and subcategories in terms of their type of species, and it is this science that gives the official name to each existing organism.
Thanks to this study, about 1.8 million species have been classified on the planet, although scientists think that there could be 4 to 100 million species worldwide. It is this great variety of species that is known as biodiversity.
Synonym taxonomy. This term can also be called "classification", which can be approached through two criteria:
Extrinsic: it takes into account the external characteristics of the living being, in terms of its shape, size, color, among others, being this type of arbitrary criterion, since it depends on the way in which the researcher perceives these characteristics.
Intrinsic: it takes into account the internal characteristics of living beings, such as their composition and internal structure, for which a thorough investigation of the studied species must be carried out.
The origin of the classification of species comes from ancient Greece, when the philosopher and scientist Aristotle (384-322 BC), through the observation and dissection of some animals, classified some 520 species into two large categories, which are the enaima (who have red blood) and anaima (who do not have red blood).
With this, he demonstrated that knowledge could be registered and ordered, classifying organisms according to their similarities and differences and formulating a scientific name for them.
Bloom's taxonomy
It refers to the set that includes three models that classify the learning objectives, categorized by their levels of complexity. This type of taxonomy was created by the American psychologist and pedagogue Benjamin Bloom (1913-1999), who suggested that learning at higher levels is subject to the learning and skills acquired at lower levels.
According to Bloom's proposed taxonomy, there are three educational objectives or domains:
- Psychomotor: it is the skill for handling tools with the hands, and includes the levels of perception, disposition, adaptation, creation, mechanism and complex response.
- Cognitive: it is the ability to think and analyze what is being studied.
- Affective: refers to the way of reacting emotionally and the empathy that a subject has with others.
According to Bloom, there are six levels in this taxonomy regarding how the subject processes knowledge:
- Know (what you will know and remember).
- Understand (interpret the data learned).
- Apply (use of knowledge).
- Analyze (it will break down the information, understanding its meaning in parts).
- Synthesis (will create something new based on what you have learned).
- Evaluate (will provide a critical judgment of the knowledge process)
Marzano's Taxonomy
This system, proposed by Marzano and Kendall and based on Bloom's system, adheres to the new knowledge that has been obtained about how the human being processes the new information acquired.
This model is the update of the Bloom system, being this more practical with a more applicable classification system, where teachers can adjust their teachings in a more effective way. Unlike the previous model, this one is made up of two domains:
1. Knowledge domain: what is the kind of learning that the student can do. This domain is divided into three types, which are
- Information (data acquisition).
- Psychomotor procedures (skills and knowledge regarding the use of the body).
- Mental procedures (ways of thinking regarding the fulfillment of steps that must be carried out to fulfill an objective).
2. Processing levels: refer to the level of depth in which the student can acquire new knowledge. These levels are three:
- The cognitive (conscious information).
- The metacognitive (application of acquired knowledge).
- The internal (internalization of the acquired knowledge, modifying their belief system).
Taxonomic categories
The biology taxonomy comprises eight categories, which help to create a hierarchy of each living being, which helps its understanding and study. These categories, from the most general to the most specific, are the following:
Kingdom
It is the category that divides all living species in terms of their evolutionary relationship, their place of origin and their common characteristics. At the origin of the taxonomic classification of living beings, two kingdoms were known, and over time, others have been discovered, the kingdoms Animalia, Plantae, Fungi, Protista and Monera being traditionally known, but this classification is oriented towards the appearances and ease of study of living beings.
That is why at present, according to the project called "Life Catalog System" of 2015, it mentions two supra-kingdoms, in turn divided into kingdoms (totaling seven):
- The Prokaryota supra-kingdom (comprising the Archaea and Bacteria kingdoms).
- The Eukaryota supra-kingdom (comprising the Protozoa, Chromista, Fungi, Plantae, and Animalia kingdoms).
Edge
Phylum is a category located between the taxonomic groups kingdom and class. In the kingdom Plantae and Fungi the term "division" is used as an equivalent for this level of classification. This is defined by grouping living beings by a general plan of organization. There are 40 types of phyla, although about 80% of the species known so far, is found in the
phylum Arthropoda.
Most species are found within the phyla: Arthropoda (jointed feet), Mollusca (soft), Porifera (carrier of pores), Cnidaria (nettle or stinging hairs that cause stinging), Platyhelminthes (flat worms), Nematoda (similar to a thread), Annelida (small ring), Echinodermata (skin with spines) and Chordata (presence of notochord, which is a column of cells from the primitive nodule, which advances cranially and disappears after the embryonic stage to give step to column).
Class
It is the category that encloses the species according to a significant number of common characteristics, such as their way of feeding or the presence or absence of some important feature in their structure.
Order
In this category, characteristics shared by organisms found within the same class, divided by features more specific. For example, the number of fingers an animal has, dental patterns or body adaptation. This type of category is mandatory in zoology.
Family
The category of family in biology, groups living organisms within the same order that contain common characteristics. For example, how many legs do some animals use to walk? This is one of the most important categories, since it helps to understand evolution as a process of changes that accumulate creating differences between the different species.
Gender
It is a group of organic beings belonging to the same family that share common characteristics, and in turn can be divided into different species. A gender must meet three criteria:
- It must have uniqueness, based on relevant evolutionary reasoning.
- Monophyly, in which those belonging to an ancestral taxon are grouped together.
- It must be reasonably compact, which means that a genre must not be unnecessarily expanded.
Species
It is considered as the basic unit in the classification of living beings, and refers to the set of organisms capable of reproducing and giving rise to fertile offspring. In this category, those belonging to the same species share their own genetic inheritance, so they will not be able to reproduce with another group of individuals.
Taxon
In biology, the term taxon refers to a group of related organisms. In the organizational scheme of living beings, the taxon is each of the groups of organisms, so the hierarchical level in which it is located is its so-called category. It is important to mention that a taxon is different from a category, because as mentioned above, the taxon is a term adapted to a group, while the category refers to the hierarchical level that the group has.
There are two types of taxa: natural and artificial.
natural
It refers to the taxa that are found in nature and that are justified by the evolutionary history of those that make it up and their characteristics. For the phylogenetic methodology, a natural taxon is each particular species or a monophyletic group (which come from a common ancestral population) of organisms, so it would be the one that forms a single branch in the evolutionary tree.
Artificial
It is that type of taxon that does not exist in nature or that the organisms that are part of it are not monifiletical, in which their common ancestor does not exist within the same group. An example would be protozoa, since although they do not have validity in the classification, they are still used to organize certain categories of scientific information.
Plant and animal taxonomy
Plant taxonomy is the branch of botany responsible for the classification and systematization of plants, as well as the foundations, norms and mechanisms that control said classification. This science was born due to the need of man, to group the descriptive principles of the plant with greater precision.
This arises from the need to distinguish between the great variety of plant species that exist, in addition to the fact that each region has a different name for the same organism.
An example of this is the alvar oak and the carvallo, which is the same type of tree, or the passion fruit and passion fruit, which is the same fruit. For botany, the most important categories are: species, genus, family, order, class and division.
Animal taxonomy, on the other hand, classifies animals with similar characteristics, and for their reproductive capacity, which allows them to leave offspring. It may be the case that two species of different animals interbreed, but their descendants will be sterile, as in the case of the mule, which comes from the cross between a mare and a donkey or donkey.
Animals are usually named by their most common term, such as the bird. But, since there is a wide variety of species of this animal, taxonomy is necessary, which will help scientists to identify exactly the species that is being talked about. For this type of taxonomy, the binomial identification system is used, which consists in that the first letter of the species is written in capital letters and all the letters in cursive font; and taking up the previous example, a species of bird would be the hummingbird, or Colibri coruscans.
Examples of taxonomies
Here are some examples of taxonomy of plants, animals and fungi.
1. Taxonomy of the human being
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata / Craniata
Class: Mammalia
Order: Primates
Family: Hominidae
Genus: Homo
Species: Homo sapiens
2. Taxonomy of the dog
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Mammalia
Order: Carnivora
Family: Canidae
Genus: Canis
Species: C. lupus
3. Taxonomy of the cat
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Mammalia
Order: Carnivora
Family: Felidae
Genus: Felis
Species: F. silvestris
4. Taxonomy of corn
Kingdom: Plantae
Subd IVISION: Magnoliophyta
Class: Liliopsida
Order: Poales
Family: Poaceae
Genus: Zea
Species: Zea mays
5. Taxonomy of the mushroom
Kingdom: Fungi
Division: Basidiomycota
Class: Agaricomycetes
Order: Agaricales
Family: Agaricaceae
Genus: Agaricus
Species: A. bisporus
