Week 7 Vocab: What is a Species?

Carl Linnaeus

18th century Swedish naturalist who created

binomial nomenclature

Taxonomy

The science of naming and allocating organisms into related groups.

Binomial name

The two part scientific name of a species; composed of a genus name and a species epithet; written in italics.

Genus name

The first half of a binomial name e.g. Tyrannosaurus, from Tyrannosaurus rex.

Specific epithet

The second half of a binomial name e.g. rex, from Tyrannosaurus rex.

Rule of Priority

Taxonomic law stating once a species has officially

been given a binomial name, the name cannot

be changed.

Peer-reviewed

The process by which a scientific publication gets reviewed by other scientists to verify that the contents of the publication are

legitimate and scientifically reasonable.

Interspecific variation

When individuals differ in morphology because they belong to different species.

Intraspecific variation

When individuals differ in morphology, but belong to the same species.

Sexual dimorphism

Differences between males and females of a given species, beyond genitalia.

Ontogenetic variation

Changes that you can see between young individuals and old individuals of the same species.

Individual variation

Normal differences that

exists among individuals of a given species. E.g. hair or eye colour.

Taphonomic variation

When geological processes like plastic deformation change the shape of a bone, resulting in apparent anatomical differences.

Biological species concept

Definition of a species as a group of organisms that can successfully interbreed.

Population

Any grouping of organisms that live in the

same geographic area and interbreed.

Morphological species concept

Definition of species as a group of organisms that share a certain degree of physical similarity.

Lumpers

Palaeontologists who require more differences before they consider two species to be distinct.

Splitters

Paleontologists who require fewer differences

before they consider two species to be distinct.