CHAPTER 13: Classification
- Kaikoura
- Explore New Zealand's Kaikoura Canyon with the National Geographic
Society to search for the giant squid. The Web article features
photos of the local animals (including the squids) and crew.
- NCBI Taxonomy Browser
- Enter the scientific or common name of nearly any organism
and this database will give you its classification, from kingdom
to genus. This powerful resource comes from the National Center
for Biotechnology Information.
- The Tree of Life
- This is an ambitious and ever-evolving project at the University
of Arizona to document and link every organism on Earth by phylogenetic
relationships. Find your favorite organism and trace it back
to its roots or work your way forward from the first organism.
The Tree also gives a description of each organism represented
on its branches and provides links to related references on the
Internet.
- Web Lift to Any Taxon
- Find pictures, fossils, and descriptions of a wide variety
of organisms by their common or scientific name, using this resource
from the University of California Museum of Paleontology.
- Journey into Phylogenetic Systematics
- Learn about how organisms are classified and the implications
of cladistics.
- Mammal Species of the World Home Page
- Type in the common name of a mammal and find its scientific
name in this database from the Smithsonian Institution. In addition
to the mammal's name, you can learn which family and order it
belongs to, its distribution, and whether it is endangered.
- Carolus Linnaeus
- The great, amazing Linnaeus: Just reading his biography is
enough to make you tired. Not only did he write volumes on the
thousands of species which he named and classified, he also found
time to graduate from medical school and become the physician
to the Swedish royal family.
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- Dinosaur Cladogram
- Is T. rex more related to Velociraptors or Anklyosaurs?
Where do birds fall on the family tree? For a brief overview,
check out this cladogram.
- Expedition: Fossils
- Both thumbs way up for this interactive vertebrate cladogram
from the American Museum of Natural History in New York. Use
the Expedition Guide frame to navigate through the milestones
of Vertebrate Evolution, starting with "Vertebral Column
and the Brain." The navigation is similar to using Windows
95.
- Birds & DNA
- When Europeans first arrived in Australia, they thought they
saw birds that were relatives of the birds known in the old world.
In reality, the similarities were the result of convergent evolution.
This beautifully illustrated site from the Museum of Victoria
describes how DNA analysis was used to establish the true heritage
of Australian birds.
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- The Beast of Bodmin Moor
- Stories of a large beast circulated around Britain, but no
physical evidence of such an animal appeared until a 14 year-old
brought an unidentified skull to the Natural History Museum.
With the guidance of paleontologist Daphne Hills, can you identify
the creature?
- Mystery Tree
- Use the user-friendly dichotomous key from Oregon State University
to identify any one of four common conifers of the Pacific Northwest.
- Expert Center for Taxonomic Identification
- This non-profit in the Netherlands provides many resources,
including a World Taxonomist Database. If you want to locate a person studying
a certain taxon, use this database to search for an expert.
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