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OEB 181: Systematics Catalog Number: 5459: Tu & TH, 10 - 11:30 Am, MCZ 202 Wednesdays, 2 - 4 PM, Science Center 418D

This document provides information about the OEB 181: Systematics course at Harvard University, including logistics, instructors, grading, recommended readings, phylogenetic software, and motivations for studying systematics. It also defines key terms in systematics like taxonomy, classification, characters, and the Linnaean hierarchy. Finally, it discusses different schools of classification like evolutionary taxonomy, phenetics, and cladistics.

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136 views21 pages

OEB 181: Systematics Catalog Number: 5459: Tu & TH, 10 - 11:30 Am, MCZ 202 Wednesdays, 2 - 4 PM, Science Center 418D

This document provides information about the OEB 181: Systematics course at Harvard University, including logistics, instructors, grading, recommended readings, phylogenetic software, and motivations for studying systematics. It also defines key terms in systematics like taxonomy, classification, characters, and the Linnaean hierarchy. Finally, it discusses different schools of classification like evolutionary taxonomy, phenetics, and cladistics.

Uploaded by

dong
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© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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OEB 181: Systematics

Catalog Number: 5459


Tu & Th, 10 - 11:30 am, MCZ 202
Wednesdays, 2 - 4 pm, Science Center 418D

Gonzalo Giribet (Biolabs 1119, [email protected])


Charles Marshall (MCZ 111A, [email protected] )
Jessica Baker (Biolabs 1119, [email protected])

http://www.courses.fas.harvard.edu/~bio181/
Grades
• 4 class assignments (40%)
– First assignment on October 4th, 2weeks per
assignment
• Class participation (10%)
• Final exam (December 16th; 50%)
Recommended books:
Recommended readings:

Graur D, and Li WH (2000). "Fundamentals of Molecular Evolution." Sinauer


Associates, Sunderland. Chapters 1 and 5.

Kitching IJ, Forey PL, Humphries CJ, Williams DM (1998) Cladistics. Theory and
Practice of Parsimony Analysis. The Systematics Association by Oxford University
Press, Oxford.

Page RDM, Holmes EC (1998) Molecular evolution. A phylogenetic approach.


Blackwell Science, Boston.

Schuh RT (2000) Biological systematics. Principles and applications. Cornell University


Press, Ithaca.

Swofford DL, Olsen GJ, Waddell PJ, and Hillis DM (1996). Phylogenetic inference. In:
Hillis DM, Moritz C, Mable BK (eds) “Molecular systematics”. Sinauer Associates,
Sunderland, Massachusetts, pp 407-514.

Felsenstein J (2004). Inferring Phylogenies. Sinauer Associates, Sunderland,


Massachusetts.
Systematic journals/societies

Society of Systematic Biologists: http://systbiol.org/


Willi Hennig Society: http://www.cladistics.org/
Other systematic journals
Phylogenetic software
http://www.courses.fas.harvard.edu/~bio181/programs/programs.html
Systematics […] Discussion Group
http://www.people.fas.harvard.edu/~sramirez/

Fall 2006: Mondays, 1 pm @ Harvard University Herbaria


Motivation for systematics studies

“Systematics is the science of biological classification”

• Biodiversity and its origins


• Relationships (pattern and shape)
• Conservation biology
• Medical applications
Hillis, D. M. & Huelsenbeck J. P. (1994): Support for dental HIV
transmission. Nature 369: 24-25.
Biological Systematics
Biological Systematics is the science that studies relationships among
organisms (living and extant), establishing the patterns that relate those
organisms among each other.

Systematics was an intuitive science from its beginning, and it was not until the
development of modern methodologies that it became a more strict numerical
science.

Empiricism was attempted first from a phenetic point of view, propounding a


taxonomy which simply grouped based on the overall similarity (Sokal and
Sneath, 1963). Simultaneously, phylogenetic systematics (= cladistics)
originated as an approach that would directly reflect information concerning the
results of the evolutionary process, where groupings are based strictly on
special similarity, that is, similarity which arose from common ancestry
(apomorphy) (Hennig, 1950, 1966). The application of the parsimony
principle (minimizing requirements for ad hoc hypotheses of homoplasy:
noise or convergence) to the cladistics methodology gave origin to modern
quantitative cladistics. Probabilistic methods were later incorporated into
systematic research.
Definitions:
• Systematics and taxonomy: methods and practices of
describing, naming, and classifying biological diversity,
at the species level and above.
• Classification: represents the codification of the
results of systematic studies.
• Taxon (plural, taxa): basic units of systematics; group
of organisms at any level in the systematic hierarchy.
• Characters: group of attributes. A unique combination
of such attributes (or states of characters) define a
species or any other supraspecific taxon.
The Linnaean Hierarchy:

Systema Naturae (Linnaeus, 1758) Current classification system

Kingdom Kingdom
Class
Phylum
Order
Class
Genus
Species Subclass
Variety Order
Suborder
Superfamily
Family
Subfamily
Tribe
Genus
Species
Current classification system

Kingdom Animalia
Phylum Arthropoda
Subphylum Mandibulata
Class Myriapoda
Subclass Chilopoda
Order Lithobiomorpha
Family Henicopidae
Subfamily Henicopinae
Tribe Henicopini
Genus Paralamyctes
Subgenus Thingathinga
Species Paralamyctes (Thingathinga) hornerae

Paralamyctes (Thingathinga) hornerae Edgecombe, 2001

Paralamyctes trailli (Archey, 1917)


Haasiella trailli: Archey, 1917
Pre-darwininan classifications
William Macleay and Quinarianism
Schools of Classification:
• Evolutionary taxonomy: Methods and Principles of Systematic
Zoology, by Ernst Mayr, Gorton Linsley, and Robert Usinger (1953).
McGraw-Hill, New York.

• Phenetic: Principles of Numerical Taxonomy, by R.R. Sokal, and


P.H.A. Sneath (1963). W. H. Freeman, San Francisco.

• Phylogenetic (Cladistic): Grundzüge einer Theorie der


phylogenetischen Systematik, by Willi Hennig (1950); Phylogenetic
Systematics (Hennig, 1966). University of Illinois Press, Urbana.
(Reissued 1999)
Ernst Mayr - 1904-2005
MCZ Director 1961-1970
Schools of Classification:

Evolutionary Cladistic
Phenetic
taxonomy
Data type
Character data
converted to a Discrete characters Discrete characters
distance matrix
Grouping method Overall similarity Special similarity Special similarity

Diagram type Phenogram Evolutionary tree Cladogram

Hierarchical level Amount of Amount of Sharing of unique


determined by difference difference attributes

Sensitive to rate
differences Yes Yes No
Musems: where systematics gets done
1859 - 1885
First MCZ director
Louis Agassiz
Museums as sources of morphological
and molecular data for systematics

Frozen tissues
Traditional specimens
Where to find more information:

Schuh, R.T. (2000). Biological systematics.


Principles and applications. Cornell University
Press, Ithaca.

Chapter 1 gives a general Introduction to


Systematics

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