Taxonomic classification is a nested heirarchy of categories for classifying organisms. It begins with the species that is named by binomial nomenclature, including the genus and particular species name. For example,, panthera pardus is a leopard. The next group is slighlty more broad and is just panthera. Panthera includes big cats that have the ability to roar. Next is the family, in this example, felidae. Members of this family have retractable claws. The next classification is order, in this case carnivora. These members have carnassial teeth. Class is the next step which is mammalia. It then goes phylum (chordata), kingdom (animalia), and domain (eukarya). This is the basics of taxonomy. It is similar to a pyramid in the sense that it narrows as it goes down the categories. So species is very specific and with each step headed towards domain, the categories get broader and broader and include more and more organisms.
In this class we will be determining the evolutionary history of behaviors by mapping behaviors on already existing phylogenies. The behaviors will not be used to create the phylogeny, instead we will be mapping the bahaviors on already existing phylogenies. Behaviors on a phylogeny do not necessarily mean that they will get more complex with evolution, in some cases behaviors or characteristics can be lost within a phylogeny.
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