The development and understanding of evolutionary theory has its roots in basic
natural history. Part of good old-fashioned natural history is knowing the names of and
something about other organisms with which we share this planet. The famous
evolutionary biologist and ant expert Edward Wilson had a professor (Ralph Chermock)
who believed that evolutionary biology should be built upon a solid bedrock of natural
history acquired in the field and that “you’re not a real biologist until you know the
names of 10,000 species." Not many people can do that though; but some can. I don't
expect this of you, at least not any time soon, but it never hurts to take any opportunity
you can to learn about other organisms. That is what this little assignment is all about.
I want you to find a species of plant, animal, or fungus whose name (the
binomial, scientific name of the species) shares your initials. For example, because my
initials are J and H (for Jim Hogue) I could use the species Jadera haematoloma. For
the species you choose I want you to correctly write out its complete scientific name
(stick to currently accepted names; do some research to verify this, I am going to check
these myself), including the author(s) and date the way we learned in class and
summarize its higher-level classification. Spell out the author(s) last name completely,
do not use abbreviations. Also, do not do subspecies. You may also list a common
name or names if you like (for these, capitalize the first letter of each word in a common
name that applies to a particular species) and for names where the author is in
parentheses (i.e., this currently accepted name is not the original combination), correctly
and completely write the original name (this is called the basionym or protonym). If the
current name is also the basionym, you can state this is the case or write the name
again in full after the heading for the basionym. Give a brief biography, including their
complete name and where and when they lived, of the author of the species. If there is
more than one author, do this for only one of them. Give a brief description of the
organism (you can make a small drawing or include a small photo to help with this if you
want, but it isn't required), where it lives (habitat type and where on the planet it occurs),
what it eats (for plants you can say that they derive their energy from photosynthesis)
and what (if anything) eats it, and any other general natural history information you find
interesting. Lastly, find and correctly write the complete scientific name (including the
author(s) and year) of one close relative (same genus or same family) of your species
that lives here in southern California. Do this even if your species lives here. If there
are no local close relatives (none in same genus or family), explain why. For example,
the family your organism belongs to may be endemic to Madagascar.
Sample Solution