Episteme - July 8th - Popular Genera and some binomials
Day 2 - Generic Genera
Why Genera?
Alright, I admit, I got so engrossed in other things throughout the day that I'm writing this at 1 am, July 9th instead (although to say I forgot would be factually incorrect) so I thought I should go with something simple. For this Episteme challenge, I just have to learn something, right? So here I'll try to remember some popular mammal genera (referring to this list) and some species which fall under these genera.
Genera
A genus is a subdivision of an organism, and is technically the first half of the scientific name in the binomial system, written in capitals (eg Panthera leo, which is a lion. Panthera is the genus). This I knew before, both what a genus is and that Panthera leo is the scientific name for a lion. To be fair, I only really remember two - Panthera leo and panthera tigris. I used to remember wolves and horses and the T.rex, but I'm not in the mood to sit down and try to recall it, because I want to make this entry quick.
Panthera
Panthera is one of the three (update: oops, there were more) genera which fall under the Felidae (feline) family, this I remember. Panthera probably refers to big cats. Another refers to smaller cats, and the last is unique to the cheetah as it has a unique bone or body structure (which attributes to how fast the cat is). One characteristic of this genus is the cat's ability to roar, which all but the snow leopard can do. Recent studies suggest it due to the larynx. Others include: a flattish dorsal part of the skull, a sloped rounded chin, an incomplid ossid hyoid bone, and more that I currently have the inability to comprehend because I don't actually know a lot of bones. With all I don't know, it's hard for me to believe I'm a top student oof.
Binomial names of members of this genus are:
- Panthera leo, or the lion
- Panthera tigris, or the tiger
- Panthera pardus, or the leopard
- Panthera onca, or the jaguar
- Panthera uncia, formerly Uncia uncia, or the snow leopard
Canis
Canis is a genus for dogs. More specifically, for wolves, dogs, coyotes, and golden jackals, and are under the Caninae family. Key distinguishes of these creatures are: moderately large size, long legs, well-developed skulls, and relatively shorter ears and tails.
Binomial names for members to this genus are:
- Canis aureus, or the golden jackal (which makes sense, because au for gold)
- Canis simensis, or the Ethiopian wolf
- Canis lupaster, or the African golden wolf (which doesn't contain au unless you count the letter separately)
- Canis latras, or the coyote
- Canis lupus, or the wolf (which, too, makes sense)
- Canis familiarise, or the domestic dog (makes a lot of sense)
Also, I noticed the opposite for extinct was extant. Which, wow. Don't you love when opposites mirror each other in some way? Anyways, even if I forget everything here later at least I've learnt the word extant.
Ursus
Chose this because it sounded vaguely familiar.
Ursus, under the family Ursidae (which gets me thinking of Ursula from The Little Mermaid, and wondering whether her huge, intimidating structure is based of that of a bear's - which doesn't make sense for an aquatic movie), in Latin, in a simple word, means bear. Which means this contains the bear species.
Characteristics include: never mind, there isn't much said on the Wikipedia page, and I'm not in the mood to search it up since I technically still have a graduation speech to polish.
Binomial names of members include:
- Ursus americanus, or rather obviously, the American black bear
- Ursus arctos, or the brown bear
- Ursus maritimus, or the polar bear (marine bear, kind of. Cute)
- Ursus thibetamus, or the Asian black bear (possibly first found in Tibet)
Oh cute, a hybrid between grizzlies and polar bears was created, and they're called prizzlies, pizzlies, or grolar bears. I like the first one.
Bos
Shamefully, I chose this because I liked the name. Bos, under the family Bovidae, in Latin means bull/ox/cow, which gives you enough of an idea of what animals they include. Admittedly I thought the name was funny, so I'm relieved it's a common enough group.
Also, apparently there are things called subgenera, and there are four under Bos: Bos, Bibos, Novibos, and Poephagus (I'm assuming has to do with a unique gut). I really do have to learn about the classification system and its subdivisions (makes school useless somehow). Currently there are five extant species under Bos, but this may rise to eight. Characteristics: they graze on grass, have large teeth (presumably molar-like) to grind up the grass, and have a stomach with four chambers to break down the grass. Like how we have four-chambered hearts, though I think cows have that too.
This is an assumption, but I read that some scientists think our appendix contains enzymes which help to digest the touch cellulose on grass, mostly present in herbivores, in which cows come to mind. So though not on the Wikipedia, I'll assume that's a characteristic too.
Binomial names of members include:
- Bos taurus, or cattle
- Bos gaurus, or gaur
- Bos sauveli, or kouprey
- Bos gorennius, or domestic yak
- Bos mutus, or wild yak
Equus
Interestingly, it's the only widely known genus to have seven extant species, including zebras, horses, and donkeys (zedonks come to mind for hybrids. Also quaggas. Which I'm not sure if they're hybrids. They were nice while they existed). Characteristics include being one-toed ongulates, slender legs, long necks and heads (relatively, we're not talking giraffes or crocodiles here), erect manes, and long tails.
Binomial names of members include:
- Equus ferus, or both the wild and domestic horse (feral can suggest that domestic horses aren't too so)
- Equus zebra, or the mountains zebra
- Equus quagga, or, not quaggas, but plains zebras (Marty?)
- Equus africanus, or the African wild ass (I am a mature person)
- Equus hermionus, or the onager (Reference, if you, like me, don't know what an onager is)(also, wonder if this is related to Hermione somewhat)
- okay, this is gold. Hermionus comes from two components - hemi, meaning half, and onos, meaning donkey. So a half-donkey. I really wonder what made her parents name her Hermione of all things, but hey, she is as stubborn as a mule
- It also happens to be the Asian wild ass. I am a mature person.
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Some other things I've learnt from scrolling include:
- There are A LOT of bats
- The genus for a camel is Camelus
- Hermione's parents must be sick in the head, because they're muggles for god's sake. To cut them some slack, she was supposedly born in 1979, so she wouldn't really know what I know now, or really, just learnt.
- Never mind, it was named by some zoologist called Peter Simon Pallas in 1775.
So yeah, this should have been quick, but it took an hour. Wasn't as extensive as the first, but hopefully, still acceptable (to the people who read it. Which is. No one. I should publicize this, but something about it being so clandestine prompts me to keep writing). Stay tuned for tomorrow where I hopefully write something better :)
Sufficient sources are hyperlinked in above.
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