Biomedical Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
Appendix I
Additional Notes on Taxonomy
“The purpose of narrative is to present us with complexity and ambiguity.”
Scott Turow
This section of the topic was relegated to the Appendix, because it should
only be read by stalwarts, who have studied Chapters 1 through 46, and who
hunger for more.
A taxonomy is a theoretical construct. As such, it needs to be constantly
tested to determine whether the defined properties of each class actually
extend to all of the members of the class, and whether the hierarchies of the
classes are true. As new information is acquired, taxonomies will need to
change. Some of the recent changes in the taxonomy of living organisms
have involved the highest classes in the hierarchy. The first division of the
Eukaryotes was assigned to Class Bikonta and Class Unikonta (analogous to
dicot and monocot division in Class Angiospermae) [69]. Class Protoctista
has been dropped from the formal taxonomy. Class Rhizaria was introduced.
Class Microsporidia was moved from Class Protoctista to Class Fungi. Class
Chlorophyta was moved from Class Protoctista to Class Archaeplastida.
Troubles also arise on the species level. For example, Enterobius vermi-
cularis is called pinworm in the USA and threadworm in the UK; while
Strongyloides stercoralis is just the opposite (threadworm in the USA and
pinworm in the UK). The only way to escape this trans-Atlantic confusion is
to translate the common name of the organism back to its standard Latin
binomial.
Here is a sampling of recent name changes, in species or genus:
Aggregatibacter
actinomycetemcomitans,
formerly
Actinobacillus
actinomycetemcomitans
Anaplasma phagocytophilum, formerly assigned two different species
names: Ehrlichia phagocytophilium and Ehrlichia equi [26]
Aonchotheca philippinensis, formerly Capillaria philippinensis
Arcanobacterium haemolyticum, formerly Corynebacterium haemolyticum
Arcanobacterium pyogenes, formerly Actinomyces pyogenes
Bartonella quintana, formerly Rochalimaea quintana
