Five things about animal taxonomy that may or may not surprise you.

[Duke Guilmon]

5. Toads are frogs, pandas are bears, etc, etc:



This one is to break some ice and start this list. This is really to stop misunderstandings of animal taxonomy we were taught. The toads are frogs is an example. In taxonomy frogs are known as an order called anura. Just so happens toads belong to that group. Now one can argue that toads are different from the normal frog, but looking at the order, what frogs are the same? In fact toad are not just one group but multiple groups. In fact many of these toad groups are more related to frogs than other toads. The reason people say pandas are not bears, toads are not frogs, and humans are not apes is a little something called folk taxonomy. Folk taxonomy, as you can guess, is taxonomy made by every day people in contrast with scientific taxonomy. And as we can see folk taxonomy is way less accurate and way less reliable than actual taxonomy

4.There is no species of panther:



Another thing people tend to get wrong is that there is something called a panther as a species. However in reality there isn't. The leopard and the jaguar are what is most commonly given some sort of panther species status. However panthers are in fact a subfamily known as pantherinae, which belongs to the family felidae. That means tigers and lions are also panthers. Again, people not seeing things.

3.Humans don't rule, ants do:

Humans may think they are the best because they can destroy a planet, but in reality ants seem to take the cake in control. Now springtails may be the most populous animal today, but ants have power and force on their side. In fact they say some animals run at the sight of them. Now you may say it is unfair to consider that homo sapiens is a smaller taxonomic group than ants but in fact ants are a family, which is not that far off from species. Even then the argument is irrelevant. Keep in mind that this is only between animals and remember humans are second ants first.

2.Birds of Prey, Fish, and Bug are not what they seem:



For example bird of prey is used to describe birds like owls, hawks, falcons, vultures, and ospreys. However genetics begs to differ if this birds are closely related in the way people think they are. For example falcons are part of a group called psittacopasserae, which if you can tell by the first part of the name, falcons are more related to parrots than other birds of prey. In fact old world vultures are more related to hawks and eagles and new world vultures are more related to storks

Fish plays a different role as it is the fact that like birds of prey there is not taxonomic group for all fishes. In fact at best it just describes no tetrapod vertebrates. In fact there are five main classes that we call fishes, the most popular be ray-finned fish and Chondrichthyes(because of sharks).

You see my point this again addresses that just because every body calls it they does not make it a fact. Not to say fish, bug, or bird of prey is not used in science, they have their uses, but they are not what people think they are.

1. You can drown a crab



^

Yeah that one. Thanks to the gills being vestigial and not used for breathing you can drown the thing. If any one actually goes and drowns this fucking thing with their bear hands, I would give you money. Like seriously somebody should do it, we could eat it afterwards. Oh right the taxonomy part. Well this is because they belong to a family called coenobitidae. This crabs are all terrestrial hermit crabs. This animals have evolved a life on land over water, sorta like arthropods did once in the silurian period millions of years ago.

[vorlon13]

Are pumas, mountain lions, and cougars all the same thing ?

{please hide mutant crab thing }

[tantric]

Linnean taxonomy is in DESPERATE need of replacement. It is predicated on the view that species are absolutes, rather than genetic ranges. Basically, it assumes creation, not evolution. I had to build a database for all ungulate, primate and carnivore species, then another for all their diseases and parasites. I finally created a translation table, to turn old names into new names, so I could update it yearly.Freaking NIGHTMARE.

[BrianSoddingBoru4]

Some of your information seems outdated. New World vultures are now classed as more closely related to Accipitriformes than to Ciconiiformes.

On a somewhat related note, New Zealand is home to the world's largest parrot. It is alpine, about as intelligent as the corvids, and nests on the ground. How cool is THAT??

Boru

[tantric]

I noticed that there is an odd tendency to name primates after mythical devils....there are baal, moloch and even an asomodeus - know any?

[Cyberman]

To fuck with the creationists.

[Whateverist]

Some of your information seems outdated. New World vultures are now classed as more closely related to Accipitriformes than to Ciconiiformes.

On a somewhat related note, New Zealand is home to the world's largest parrot. It is alpine, about as intelligent as the corvids, and nests on the ground. How cool is THAT??

Boru

The Kea? It eats meat, doesn't it?

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Which is more likely - that life forms adapted to deep ocean vents arose entirely separately from everything else - or - that one or the other arose first and gave rise to the other?

[Alex K]

Great Thread!

[robvalue]

Cool stuff, very interesting, thanks!

I remember hearing something about that last one:

http://youtu.be/2g1fr5vk72M

[BrianSoddingBoru4]

Some of your information seems outdated. New World vultures are now classed as more closely related to Accipitriformes than to Ciconiiformes.

On a somewhat related note, New Zealand is home to the world's largest parrot. It is alpine, about as intelligent as the corvids, and nests on the ground. How cool is THAT??

Boru

The Kea? It eats meat, doesn't it?

---

Which is more likely - that life forms adapted to deep ocean vents arose entirely separately from everything else - or - that one or the other arose first and gave rise to the other?

Yup, they were very nearly hunted to extinction for killing sheep.

Boru