Taxonomy

For the last few weeks, I have been learning about how living organisms are classified. Some of the things I have been doing include learning about Linnaeus, the Dichotomous Key and going to see the real animals at the zoo. The most known system of classification is called taxonomy which separates things based on specific attributes. The list of taxa goes Kingdom, Phylum, Class, Order, Family, Genus and Species. For this, I have made a project on the formats of showing classification. First is a visual artwork on my chosen organism, the African Penguin (Spheniscus demersus) with its taxonomy. Next, I will show a Venn diagram of how it is similar to other kinds of animals. Lastly, I will give a mathematical description and explanation. Before getting into the science of the African Penguin let me give a description. The African Penguin also known as the "Jackass Penguin" lives on the southern most tip of Africa. It is a flightless bird that only eats fish, only four species of striped penguin live in Africa. This penguin is commonly referred to as the Jackass Penguin by museums and locals because of a sound it makes that resembles a donkey braying.

For the visual piece I made a collage and turned it into a GIF that points out each trait for its taxa.

CDH. Penguin Photo. 2019.
This is the original image I used.

CDH. Jackass Penguin Taxonomy. 2019.

Kingdom: Animalia - It is multi-cellular.

Phylum: Chordata - It has a spine.

Class: Aves - It has a beak and feathers.

Order: Sphenisciformes -It is an aquatic, flightless bird.

Family: Spheniscidae - It is an aquatic, flightless bird. (Yes Order and Family are the same)

Genus: Spheniscus - It has bands of color on its body.

Species: S.demersus - It only lives in South African waters.


The Venn diagram will compare the African Penguin, a Meerkat and a Giraffe.

While these animals have similarities each has its own traits to separate them from the rest. The African Penguin is a water bird that eats fish and is marked by a large black stripe. The Giraffe is a tall mammal that only eats plants and the Meerkat is a small carnivorous animal that lives in large groups. All three also have things in common like they all live in Africa and have distinguishing patterns in their fur/feather coat. The last and most obvious one I will list would be they are all classified into animalia meaning they are multicellular organisms.

The last thing to display is a list of math sets of the organism and what I mean when I describe something with only a few words.

A= {Three-Colors}
B= {Piscivore}
C= {Swims in cold and hot water}
D= {Has pink skin showing}
E= {Distinction by pattern in feathers}

C U D
The warmer the water more blood goes to the pink skin to be cooled then circulated throughout the body.

A U E
 Both relate to a physical color style.

A= The main body and part of the head are the colors black, white and pink.

B= The biggest portion of the African Penguin is fish and squid.

C= Thanks to the pink spot on its forehead blood can be cooled.

D= The showing skin on its forehead is solely for function, it is not a natural color of feathers.

E= One of the biggest distinctions between the African Penguin and other species would be that it has a black stripe going through the upper middle of the chest.

To give a recap this was about how an organism can be classified through taxonomy. More specifically this was about the African Penguin. I hope you learned something new and please give any feedback you can.