Taxonomy

Day 144: Anyone who enjoys observing the natural world undoubtedly has at least one field guide on their bookshelf. Some of us maintain a substantial library of them for cross-referencing because information will vary from book to book, some including more detail about habitat or identifying features than others. However, depending on the age of your field guide, you may discover radical variations in the scientific names of species. Why?

The science of naming is called "taxonomy." Its purpose is to provide a roadmap to the hierarchy of any particular species, i.e., to those species which are related to it. More often than not, the species name is in some way descriptive in translation; for example, rotundifolia means round-leaved (rotundi- = round, folium = leaf). Genus names are not as easy to interpret, but they are assigned following certain nomenclatural codes. Even so, they are not carved in stone.

The advent of DNA analysis has stirred the taxonomic pot, particularly in the fields of botany and ornithology. Some species which were formerly thought to belong to one genus have been shown to be related to an entirely different one. In keeping with this new information, species' taxonomy may need to be altered to reflect its true lineage. In the last decade, we have seen a sharp uptick in revised nomenclature, particularly for plant and bird species. If, like me, you enjoy throwing the Latin around, don't rely on your 1960 edition field guide for the correct scientific name. Even those shown in 2018 volumes can be suspect.