The purpose of the Systematics laboratory is to allow students to classify a selected species into taxa using the traits or characters of the species. As students select taxa and proceed through the selected classification scheme, the taxonomic relationships are displayed simultaneously as a rank-based list and as a cladogram-type structure or tree. The trees are built either left to right or bottom to top and show the relationships amongst the different levels and taxa. The trees are NOT true cladograms and are not intended to show strict phylogenies but instead are intended to show hierarchical relationships among the taxa in a classification scheme.
Various classification schemes are provided in the Systematics laboratory in order to demonstrate the ramifications of using different approaches to the classification of the species. Given below is a description of each classification scheme provided in the laboratory.
3 Domain. This classification scheme is based on three domains and is the scheme defined in the higher education and AP text Biology by Campbell and Reece.
6 Kingdom. This classification scheme is based on a six-kingdom approach and is based on the cladograms defined in the high school level text by Miller and Levine.
Linnaean. This classification scheme is rank-based and follows the original Linnaean taxonomy. While the scheme is strictly rank based, the simulation still builds a tree to help students visual the taxonomic relationships and to emphasize the differences between more cladistic type approaches.
Simple. This classification scheme is a purposefully flawed scheme based on the outward characteristics of the species. The purpose of including the scheme in the simulation is to provide a simple, low-level scheme to demonstrate how characters are used to define taxa but also to show how taxa that are ill defined can result in relationships among species that are obviously incorrect.
Tree of Life. This classification scheme is based on the book The Tree of Life: A Phylogenetic Classification by Guillaume Lecointre and Hervé Le Guyader. The phylogenetic-based tree defined in this book is considered by many to be the current state of the art classification of the species.