Post
#1
Taxonomic Patterns
Donald
A. Windsor
Taxonomic
patterns are graphic depictions of 3-tiered nested sets in which the
middle sets are represented by the number of their subsets.
Superset
⊃
Set
⊃
Subset
In
biology, a taxonomic pattern is: Family
⊃
Genus
⊃
Species
In
bibliographies, a
taxonomic pattern is: Author
⊃
Journal
⊃
Articles
In
geography, a taxonomic
pattern is: Nation
⊃
State
⊃
Counties
In
poetry, a taxonomic
pattern is: Poem
⊃
Word
⊃
Frequencies
Here
is an example from biology. A taxonomic pattern represents every
genus in a family as the number of species it contains, with the
numbers ranked from the highest to the least and similar numbers
placed in the same row extending to the right.
Shown
below is the taxonomic pattern for the bird family Threskiornithidae
(Ibises, Spoonbills) that has 33 species in 14
genera, 8 of which have multiple species and
6
of which have
only 1 species (Monroe
& Sibley, page 131).
5
4
4 4
3
3
2
2
1
1 1 1 1 1
My
first published article on taxonomic patterns explains them in
detail. However, it is too long for a blog. It can be obtained by
searching its DOI or by clicking this link.
https://www.researchgate.net/publication/342535123_Distribution_of_Species_among_Genera_in_Taxonomic_Families
If
this link does not work, contact me at windsorda@roadrunner.com
and I will email a copy to you as an attachment.
References
cited:
Monroe,
Burt L., Jr. ; Sibley, Charles G. A World Checklist of Birds.
New Haven, CT: Yale University Press. 1993. 394 pages.
Windsor,
Donald A. Distribution of species among genera in taxonomic
families. SciAesthetics Essays 2020 July: 1-8. DOI:
10.13140/RG.2.2.16192.35847
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