To use the laboratory, students can first select a species from the species menu to act as a reference, but this is not a required step for using the laboratory. To explore various taxonomic relationships, students will first select a classification scheme and then proceed to select taxa, which ultimately culminates in defining the genus and species. The taxonomy is displayed in the laboratory simultaneously as a traditional rank-based list but also in a cladogram-type structure (referred hereafter as a tree) that branches to show the relationships among the different taxa. Students can view the traits or characters that define each taxon by clicking on the name of the taxon shown in the tree or in the list. Traits and a glossary appear in Live Data. The glossary is provided to help define important terms used in the trait or character definitions.
The essential features of the Systematics laboratory are described below.
Setup Menu. The Setup menu is used to select the classification scheme that will be used to define the taxonomy of the species. The Guided checkbox can be selected to toggle between a Guided and an Unguided approach to selecting taxa. In a guided approach, students will select taxa and move up a tree level by level until arriving at the genus and species taxa. In an unguided approach, a list of all possible characters or traits is provided in Live Data and a student can go through the list of traits and find a trait that best characterizes the species.
Lab Book. The lab book is used to record procedures and observations while performing experiments in the virtual laboratory. Trees can be saved at any point in the lab book where they can be viewed in an expanded format. See the Lab Book help menu for further details about using the lab book.
Presets Menu. The Presets menu has a set of preset systematics experiments that are already predefined and ready to run. Clicking on the preset will clear the laboratory and launch the preset.
Taxonomy Window. The taxonomy is displayed in the laboratory simultaneously as a traditional rank-based list but also as a tree structure that branches to show the relationships among the different taxa. The Taxonomy Window is divided into the rank-based list and a tree where both can be viewed either horizontally or vertically. Taxa can be clicked on to reveal the defined traits in the Traits section of Live Data.
The Save, Undo, Redo, and Clear buttons are used to (1) save the current taxonomy to the lab book, (2) reverse the previous action, (3) move forward up the tree after reversing and going down the tree, and (4) clear the tree and start from the beginning. Several buttons are also available on the right side of the window which, moving from right to left, perform the following actions: (1) center the tree on the current selected node, (2) rotates the tree to a vertical or horizontal orientation, (3) zooms out to see more of the tree, and (4) zooms in on the tree.
Included/Excluded. To the right of the Taxonomy Window is a list of species viewed either as thumbnail images or by common name and which is divided into groups of Included species or Excluded species. The Included group contains the list of species that belong to the currently defined taxonomic level, and the Excluded group contains the list of species that do not belong. This list is a convenient method to view related and unrelated species at different taxonomic levels.
Glossary. The Glossary section in Live Data contains a list of definitions for terms that are used to define the traits or characters for each taxon in the scheme. A term can be found by clicking on a link in one of the Traits or typing in the first few letters of the term in the search box.
Traits. The Traits section in Live Data lists the traits or characters for a selected taxon after clicking on the taxon. The traits are used to decide to which taxon a species belongs. Terms used to define these traits and which are found in the glossary are highlighted in blue and can be accessed in the glossary by clicking on the highlighted word.
Life on Earth Chart. The geologic timescale chart can be opened from the Setup menu. It shows the major geologic periods of the earth and the arrival or dominance of different species.