Scientific Names and Classifications

[SnakeWrangler]

Hey,

I am trying to find some info on how animals (herps mainly) are classified and how the scientific names work

I have been looking at http://www.kingsnake.com/oz/ and it has the animals listed under ORDER, SUBORDER, FAMILY and SUB FAMILY.

So how does this stuff work, let me see if I understand it, then someone can show me where I am going wrong.

All lizards and snakes are of the ORDER: SQUAMATA (is this for all of these world wide??)

This order is further divided into 2 SUBORDERs: SERPENTES for Snakes and SAURIA for lizards

After this, they are divided once again into a FAMILY: AGAMIDAE for Dragons, GEKKONIDAE for Geckos, etc... the same goes for the snakes.

The FAMILY can the either contain animals directly or it can be further divided into a SUBFAMILY, is there anything after the SUBFAMILY, or do they stop here and then go into the names of the animals.

Can an ORDER or SUBORDER contain animals directly, or must they be divided into FAMILIES and so on??

Does this remain the same for all animals, or only reptiles, is this the standard for classifying animals??

Also, does anyone know of a good site that contains lots of other herps listed (not so much reptiles) like the site mentioned, that site has a huge list of reptiles, but I am also looking for other herps as well.

Man this stuff is confusing. :shock:

Cheers.

 

[SnakeWrangler]

Actually, are SPECIES and SUBSPECIES the next two in the chain.

 

[SnakeWrangler]

Just one more thing (as if I haden't already asked enough), how reliable are the codes that are assigned to the animals, is it only herps or all animals and are they world wide??

 

[craig.a.c]

I have wondered the same thing but don't know. Will be interesting when someone can fill you in with some answers.

 

[womas4me]

genus then species then suspecies i believe

 

[dpeica]

Kingdom, Phylum, Class, Order, Sub-order, Family, Genus, Species, Sub-species.
All animals are classed like that.

 

[womas4me]

The family names for all animals end in 'idae'. Subfamily names always end in 'inae'. The genus is the pigeonhole containing related species that share common ancestry and exhibit distinctive features. Within each genus are the species.
In the scientific name is two parts, the capitalised genus and lower case species eg Strophurus spinigerus.

Taken from ' A complete guide to reptiles of australia '

 

[angelrose]

Are you writing a essay or something mate? This is all very interesting... I wonder if the animals have a class system for us?

Angel

 

[SnakeWrangler]

Are you writing a essay or something mate? This is all very interesting... I wonder if the animals have a class system for us?

Angel

Nah no essay, actually want to write some database software that will allow a person to categorize their animals and maintain specific records for them, I am writing specifically for my herps but want the system to be open so that any animals, dogs, cats, etc... could also be done.

To the animals, we all come under one class: Invaders and Destroyers!! There still trying to distinguish if the conservationists and common villagers are a serperate species or not. :lol:

I was actually wondering how the scientific names were broken down, so with Morelia spilota mcdowelli

Genus = Morelia
Species = spilota
SubSpecies = mcdowelli

Is that correct??

Also with this list:

Kingdom, Phylum, Class ...

Where would you find that kind of information, like what is the chain for reptiles?? I am really after a source that details a variety of them, but if you know one that deals specifically with herps I am still interested.

Also, is this classification international, I am getting the idea that it is based on evolution (not looking for another discussion about that :lol, so am thinking it probably is.

To everyone who has replied thanks.

 

[instar]

Are you writing a essay or something mate? This is all very interesting... I wonder if the animals have a class system for us?

Angel

no but we do...

Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Subphylum: Vertebrata
Class: Mammalia
Subclass: Theria
Infraclass: Eutheria
Order: Primates
Suborder: Anthropoidea
Superfamily: Hominoidea
Family: Hominidae
Genus: Homo
Species: sapiens



Simplified: big thing two legs eats small things! :lol:

 

[instar]

Animal classifications for us:

humanus ridiculosii dressupicus ~ ladys who dress small dogs etc in bonnets
humanus tongsinsky feedicus ~ thats us
Humanus dangerosisicus shovelii ~ big ignorant killing things

.....How many can you name?

 

[instar]

here ya go sw
http://www-biol.paisley.ac.uk/courses/Tatner/biomedia/units/rept3.htm
http://anthro.palomar.edu/animal/
http://www.sirinet.net/~jgjohnso/classification.html
http://faculty.fmcc.suny.edu/mcdarby/Pages/ClassificationKey/ClassificationReptile.htm

 

[SnakeWrangler]

Wow, thanks for those links instar, I think that will pretty much cover all of my questions, cheers.

Thanks alot everyone.

 

[Already_Gone]

All vertebrates are in the superclass gnathostomata... its confusing and too much to explain in my lunchbreak!!

 

[SnakeWrangler]

From what I can tell so far the hierarchy is:

Domain or Empire
Kingdom
Phylum or Division*
Class*
Order*
Family*
Tribes*
Genus
Sections
Series (not sure if sections and series are the same or not)
Species*
Variety*
Form

However when needed there can be other ranks added by prefixing those with an asterix (*) with at least one of the following:

super
sub
infra

I am not sure if this prefixing applies only to the ones with the asterix or if I have only come across those ones so far.

This is unbelievably confusing, however so far I think I can handle intergrating this into the software, so fingers crossed hey.

 

[SnakeWrangler]

Ok, the attached chart shows the group suffixes, the only problem is that it doesn't mention anything about 'superclass' as Already_Gone did, so should I assume the info is old or inaccurtate?? Or is it that there is no set suffix for the 'superclass', I got this stuff from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Section_(biology).

 

[MPB]

G'day SnakeWrangler,
From what I understand (this will be debated, I'm sure!), in the case of carpet and diamond pythons, for example, they are all morelia spilota (genus and species) with the carpet being a sub species of the diamond, thus the diamond gets the official scientific classification of 'Morelia spilota spilota' and the carpet 'Morelia spilota variegata'.
As far as I'm aware, other so called subspecies eg. mcdowelli, imbricata etc, are all just geographic variations or varieties of M.s.variegata.
To further complicate things, it is still not certain whether M.bredli is a complete seperate species, it may prove to be another variety or subspecies of M.spilota.
Classifications are changing all the time and it's a pain in the **** trying to keep up with it all, so make sure your database software has the capacity for regular updating! (Remember the old Bothrochilus genus of pythons?)
Good luck with your database - sounds like a great idea!

 

[SnakeWrangler]

Hey MPB,

According to these pages: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Variety_(biology) and http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Form_(biology), in zoology the ranks variety and form are not used, and from what I understand, these are the only ranks below subspecies in the classification system, which means that mcdowelli, imbricata, etc... cannot be varieties or forms, so unless they are gentically different, they are all the same subspecies, namely variegata. I am not sure how much genetic difference there must be between two animals to declare seperate species or subspecies but if they are gentically different then they should be classified as seperate species or subspecies. Then again, I have only been looking into this today so I could be way of base.

Cheers and thanks for your reply.

 

[Hickson]

I haven't heard of variety or form used officially in a heirarchy, but it relates to specific populations that all carry a specific characteristic, like a patterning or shape. It usually doesn't have a latin name applied and, from what I have seen over the years, is used mainly with plants.

There are usually super- and sub- groups for all the major taxons above genus, the exception being in families where there is only one species - a subfamily might not be named in this instance. In any case, most of those sub- and super- designations are difficult to find, and pretty well useless for most people. Certainly, for what you're doing, nobody needs to know about super-, sub- and infra-. Most people can't get their heads around family, genus, species and subspecies.

And yes, this classification is used for all life forms (although I think the jury is still out on viruses).



Hix

 

[Already_Gone]

When I did this at uni, I tried drawing it on my wall, It was one hell of a confusing family tree.... the page wasnt big enough