A casserole of taxa

common name / squid, American lobster, blue mussels, American oysters, flat oysters
phylum / arthropoda, mollusca, mollusca, mollusca, mollusca
class / malacostraca, bivalve, bivalve, bivalve, cephalopod
order / decapod, mytiloida, ostreoida, ostreoida, decapod
family / nephropidae, mytilidae, ostreidae, ostreidae, loliginidae
Genus / Homarus, Mytilus, Ostrea, Lolgio, Crassostrea
species / americanus, virginica, edulis, edulis, opalescens

At a reception, a sea-food casserole is being served, containing lobster, squid, mussels, and two types of oysters. Since all of these marine organisms are mixed on the plate, the taxa of the five species are mixed up in the table to the side. The table must be redone in order to place each organism in the appropriate taxon in the hierarchy.

/ / Construct a table (6 columns and 7 rows) and write TAXA above the first column. Write above the other columns the common name of the five organisms. Name each of the rows: phylum, class, order family, Genus and species. Complete the table with the proper taxonomy.
  Which taxa do the organisms have different names? Which order appears under the arthropoda phylum and the mullusca phylum? What does the name of this order mean? Which two Genus contain species with the same name? What does this word mean?
What are the two organisms that are most closely related? Which organism is the most distantly related to the other four?

A casserole of taxa

TAXA / squid / American lobster / blue mussels / American oysters / flat oysters
phylum / mollusca / arthropoda / mollusca / mollusca / mollusca
class / cephalopod / malacostraca / bivalve / bivalve / bivalve
order / decapod / decapod / mytiloida / ostreoida / ostreoida
family / loliginidae / nephropidae / mytilidae / ostreidae / ostreidae
Genus / Lolgio / Homarus / Mytilus / Crassostrea / Ostrea
species / opalescens / americanus / edulis / virginica / edulis

Only in the Genus do the five organisms all have different names. The order that appears in both the phylum arthopoda and mollusca is that of decapods, which signifies 10 feet. Both the Genus Mytilus and Ostrea contain a species edulis, which signifies “edible”.

The American oyster (Crassostrea virginica) and the flat oyster (Ostrea edulis) are the two organisms most closely related, they share most of the same taxonomy. The American lobster is the most distantly related of the five, it belongs to another phylum and shares little in common with the other organisms.