THE CLASSIFICATION OF ANIMALS
Basis and significance of classification.—It is the common knowledge of all of us that animals are classified: that is, that the different kinds are arranged in the mind of the zoologist and in the books of natural history, in various groups, and that these various groups are of different rank or degree of comprehensiveness. A group of high rank or great comprehensiveness includes groups of lower rank, and each of these includes groups of still lower rank, and so on, for several degrees. For example, we have already learned that the toad belongs to the great group of back-boned animals, the Vertebrates, as the group is called. So do the fishes and the birds, the reptiles and the mammals or quadrupeds. But each of these constitutes a lesser group, and each may in turn be subdivided into still lesser groups.
In the early days of the study of animals and plants their classification or division into groups was based on the resemblances and the differences which the early naturalists found among the organisms they knew. At first all of the classifying was done by paying attention to external resemblances and differences, but later when naturalists began to dissect animals and to get acquainted with the structure of the whole body, the differences and likenesses of inner parts, such as the skeleton and the organs of circulation and respiration, were taken into account. At the present time and ever since the theory of descent began to be accepted by naturalists (and there is practically no one who does not now accept it), the classification of animals, while still largely based on resemblances and differences among them, tells more than the simple fact that animals of the same group resemble each other in certain structural characters. It means that the members of a group are related to each other by descent, that is, genealogically. They are all the descendants of a common ancestor; they are all sprung from a common stock. And this added meaning of classification explains the older meaning; it explains why the animals are alike. The members of a group resemble each other in structure because they are actually blood relations. But as their common ancestor lived ages ago, we can learn the history of this descent, and find out these blood relationships among animals only by the study of forms existing now, or through the fragmentary remains of extinct animals preserved in the rocks as fossils. As a matter of fact we usually learn of the existence of this actual blood relationship, or the fact of common ancestry among animals, by studying their structure and finding out the resemblances and differences among them. If much alike we believe them closely related; if less alike we believe them less closely related, and so on. So after all, though the present-day classification means something more, means a great deal more, in fact, than the classification of the earlier naturalists means, it is largely based on and determined by resemblances and differences just as was the old classification. Sometimes the fossil remains of ancient animals tell us much about the ancestry and descent of existing forms. For example, the present-day one-toed horse has been clearly shown by series of fossils to be descended from a small five-toed horse-like animal which lived in the Tertiary age.
Importance of development in determining classification.—A very important means of determining the relationships among animals is by studying their development. If two kinds of animals undergo very similar development, that is, if in their development and growth from egg-cell to adult they pass through similar stages, they are nearly related. And by the correspondence or lack of correspondence, by the similarity or dissimilarity of the course of development of different animals much regarding their relationship to each other is revealed. Sometimes two kinds of animals which are really nearly related come to differ very much in appearance in their fully developed adult condition because of the widely different life-habits the two may have. But if they are nearly related their developmental stages will be closely similar until the animals are almost fully developed. For example, certain animals belonging to the group which includes the crabs, lobsters, and crayfishes, have adopted a parasitic habit of life, and in their adult condition live attached to the bodies of certain kinds of true crabs. As these parasites have no need of moving about, being carried by their hosts, they have lost their legs by degeneration, and the body has come to be a mere sac-like pulsating mass, attached to the host by slender root-like processes, and not resembling at all the bodies of their relatives the crabs and crayfishes. If we had to trust, in making out our classification, solely to structural resemblances and differences, we should never classify the Sacculina (the parasite) in the group Crustacea, which is the group including the crabs and lobsters and crayfishes. But the young Sacculina is an active free-swimming creature resembling the young crabs and young shrimps. By a study of the development of Sacculina we find that it is more closely related to the crabs and crayfishes and the other Crustaceans than to any other animals, although in adult condition it does not at all, at least in external appearance, resemble a crab or lobster.
Scientific names.—To classify animals then, is to determine their true relationships and to express these relationships by a scheme of groups. To these groups proper names are given for convenience in referring to them. These proper names are all Latin or Greek, simply because these classic languages are taught in the schools and colleges of almost all the countries in the world, and are thus intelligible to naturalists of all nationalities. In the older days, indeed, all the scientific books, the descriptions and accounts of animals and plants, were written in Latin, and now most of the technical words used in naming the parts of animals and plants are Latin. So that Latin may be called the language of science. For most of the groups of animals we have English names as well as Greek or Latin ones and when talking with an English-speaking person we can use these names. But when scientific men write of animals they use the names which have been agreed on by naturalists of all nationalities and which are understood by all of these naturalists. These Latin and Greek names of animals laughed at by non-scientific persons as "jaw-breakers," are really a great convenience, and save much circumlocution and misunderstanding.
AN EXAMPLE OF CLASSIFICATION.
Technical Note.—There should be provided a small set of bird-skins which will serve just as well as freshly killed birds, and which may be used for successive classes, thus doing away with the necessity of shooting birds. The birds suggested for use are among the commonest and most easily recognizable and obtainable. They may be found in any locality at any time of the year. The skins can be made by some boy interested in birds and acquainted with making skins, or by the teacher, or can be purchased from a naturalists' supply store, or dealer in bird skins. The skins will cost about 25 cents each. This example or lesson in classification can be given just as well of course with other species of birds, or with a set of some other kinds of animals, if the teacher prefers. Insects are especially available, butterflies perhaps offering the most readily appreciated resemblances and differences.
Species.—Examine specimens of two male downy woodpeckers (the males have a scarlet band on the back of the head). (In the western States use Gardiner's downy woodpecker.) Note that the two birds are of the same size, have the same colors and markings, and are in all respects alike. They are of the same kind; simply two individuals of the same kind of animal. There are hosts of other individuals of this kind of bird, all alike. This one kind of animal is called a species. The species is the smallest[4] group recognized among animals. No attempt is made to distinguish among the different individuals of one kind or species of animal as we do in our own case.
Examine a specimen of the female downy woodpecker. It is like the male except that it does not have the scarlet neck-band. But despite this difference we know that it belongs to the same species as the male downy because they mate together and produce young woodpeckers, male and female, like themselves. There are thus two sorts of individuals,[5] male and female, comprised in each species of animal. A species is a group of animals comprising similar individuals which produce new individuals of the same kind usually after the mating together of individuals of two sexes which may differ somewhat in appearance and structure.
Examine a male hairy woodpecker and a female; (in western States substitute a Harris's hairy woodpecker). Note the similarity in markings and structure to the downy. Note the marked difference in size. Make notes of measurements, colors and markings, and drawings of bill and feet, showing the resemblances and the differences between the downy woodpecker and the hairy woodpecker. These two kinds of woodpeckers are very much alike, but the hairy woodpeckers are always much larger (nearly a half) than the downy woodpeckers and the two kinds never mate together. The hairy woodpeckers constitute another species of bird.
Genus.—Examine now a flicker (the yellow-shafted or golden-winged flicker in the East, the red-shafted flicker in the West). Compare it with the downy woodpecker and the hairy woodpecker. Make notes referring to the differences, also the resemblances. The flicker is very differently marked and colored and is also much larger than the downy woodpecker, but its bill and feet and general make-up are similar and it is obviously a "woodpecker." It is, however, evidently another species of woodpecker, and a species which differs from either the downy or the hairy woodpecker much more than these two species differ from each other. There are two other species of flickers in North America which, although different from the yellow-shafted flicker, yet resemble it much more than they do the downy and hairy woodpeckers or any other woodpeckers. We can obviously make two groups of our woodpeckers so far studied, putting the downy and hairy woodpeckers (together with half a dozen other species very much like them) into one group and the three flickers together into another group. Each of these groups is called a genus, and genus is thus the name of the next group above the species. A genus usually includes several, or if there be such, many, similar species. Sometimes it includes but a single known species. That is, a species may not have any other species resembling it sufficiently to group with it, and so it constitutes a genus by itself. If later naturalists should find other species resembling it they would put these new species into the genus with the solitary species. Each genus of animals is given a Greek or Latin name, of a single word. Thus the genus including the hairy and downy woodpeckers is called Dryobates; and the genus including the flickers is called Colaptes. But it is necessary to distinguish the various species which compose the genus Colaptes, and so each species is given a name which is composed of two words, first the word which is the name of the genus to which it belongs, and, second, a word which may be called the species word. The species word of the Yellow-shafted Flicker is auratus (the Latin word for golden), so that its scientific name is Colaptes auratus. The natural question, Why not have a single word for the name of each species? may be answered thus: There are already known more than 500,000 distinct species of living animals; it is certain that there are no less than several millions of species of living animals; new species are being found, described and named constantly; with all the possible ingenuity of the word-makers it would be an extremely difficult task to find or to build up enough words to give each of these species a separate name. This is not attempted. The same species word is often used for several different species of animals, but never for more than one species belonging to a given genus. And the names of the genera are never duplicated. (There are, of course, much fewer genera than species, and the difficulty of finding words for them is not so serious.) Thus the genus word in the two-word name of a species indicates at once to just what particular genus in the whole animal kingdom the species belongs, while the second or species word distinguishes it from the few or many other species which are included in the same genus. This manner of naming species of animals and plants (for plants are given their scientific names according to the same plan) was devised by the great Swedish naturalist Linnæus in the middle of the eighteenth century and has been in use ever since.
Family.—Examine a red-headed woodpecker (Melanerpes erythrocephalus) and a sapsucker (Sphyrapicus varius) and any other kinds of woodpeckers which can be got. Find out in what ways the hairy and downy woodpeckers (genus Dryobates), the flickers (genus Colaptes) and the other woodpeckers resemble each other. Examine especially the bill, feet, wings and tail. These birds differ in size, color and markings, but they are obviously all alike in certain important structural respects. We recognize them all as woodpeckers. We can group all the woodpeckers together, including several different genera, to form a group which is called a family. A family is a group of genera which have a considerable number of common structural features. Each family is given a proper name consisting of a single word. The family of woodpeckers is named Picidæ.
We have already learned that resemblances between animals indicate (usually) relationship, and that classifying animals is simply expressing or indicating these relationships. When we group several species together to form a genus we indicate that these species are closely related. And similarly a family is a group of related genera.
Order.—There are other groups[6] higher or more comprehensive than families, but the principle on which they are constituted is exactly the same as that already explained. Thus a number of related families are grouped together to form an order. All the fowl-like birds, including the families of pheasants, turkeys, grouse and quail, all obviously related, constitute the order of gallinaceous birds called Gallinæ. The families of vultures, hawks and owls constitute the order of birds of prey, the Raptores, and the families of the thrushes, wrens, warblers, sparrows, black-birds, and many others constitute the great order of perching birds (including all the singing birds) called the Passeres.
Class and branch.—But it is evident that all of these orders, together with the other bird orders, ought to be combined into a great group, which shall include all the birds, as distinguished from all other animals, as the fishes, insects, etc. Such a group of related orders is called a class. The class of birds is named Aves. There is a class of fishes, Pisces, and one of frogs and salamanders, Batrachia, one of snakes and lizards called Reptilia, and one of the quadrupeds which give milk to their young called Mammalia. Each of these classes is composed of several orders, each of which includes several families and so on down. But these five classes of Pisces, Batrachia, Reptilia, Aves and Mammals agree in being composed of animals which have a backbone or a backbone-like structure, while there are many other animals which do not have a backbone, such as the insects, the starfishes, etc. Hence these five backboned classes may be brought together into a higher group called a branch or phylum. They compose the branch of backboned animals, the branch Vertebrata; all the animals like the starfishes, sea-urchins and sea-lilies which have the parts of their body arranged in a radiate manner compose the branch Echinodermata; all the animals like the insects and spiders and centipedes and crabs and crayfishes which have the body composed of a series of segments or rings and have legs or appendages each composed of a series of joints or segments make up the branch Arthropoda. And so might be enumerated all the great branches or principal groups into which the animal kingdom is divided.
In the remainder of this book the classification of animals is always kept in sight, and the student will see the terms species, genus, family, order, etc., practically used. In it all should be kept constantly in mind the significance of classification, that is, the existence of actual relationships among animals through descent.