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Understanding Taxonomy
All known species in the world are now categorized into groups based on how closely they are related to other species. Taxometric classification has its origins in the theory of evolution called "natural selection," which was made popular by Charles Darwin (1809-1882) in On The Origin of Species (1858). According to the theory, species change and adapt over time, causing splits in racial traits and eventually creating totally separate species. There is a common history and relationship between all species, so scientists group them according to how they may be related.
As you peer deeper into the workings of the natural world at your study site, you will find some errors in common knowledge of Darwinism. Perhaps Darwin should have confined his research to a small study site, learning intimately about relationships between species, or perhaps Darwin's theories have been misconstrued to emphasize "survival of the toughest" as the determining factor in evolution. Though competition may be a pivotal aspect in evolution, you may discover that the species who thrive most in your study site will not be the individuals who dominate it, but those who cooperate best. The dominators tend to sabotage themselves in the end, which may not speak well of modern humans, and the cooperators tend to thrive.
In general, the taxometric order looks like this:
Kingdom - Most scientists say there are 5 of these, each divided into:
Phylum or Division - There aren't so many of these. They're divided into:
Class - There are many classes and groups of "sub-classes", divided into:
Order - And there are even "sub-orders", divided into:
Family - Like the wildflower families on the next page, but there can also be
"sub-families" and "tribes" within families, divided into:
Genus - Which are very closely related groups of:
Species - Which sometimes have races of individuals.
Humans give every species many different common names in many languages, even amongst English speakers. Can you think of a plant, for instance, that you call one thing and someone else calls another? To get around the dilemmas caused by common names, scientists around the whole world agree to give each species a name in the Latin language, identified with a first name, indicating the genus, and with a second name, indicating the specific species.
For example, humans are called homo sapiens, and in fact, there are no other animals in our genus or family (hominidea), although apes are in our "order" and share the Latin order name "primates" with us. Along with apes and humans, all other mammals are in the class "mammalia" . . . and so it goes back up the taxometric classification until our relationship with every species is connected somewhere.
The place to go next to learn about plant classification is to Botany in a Day – Thomas J. Elpel's Herbal Field Guide to Plant Families, pages 4-16. It is an excellent description of plant taxonomy and evolution. I divide the kingdoms of species into the following roman numerals:
I. Rocks & Soils & Minerals, along with the chemicals that make up water, air, and fire, are
not considered "alive", so they are not species.
II. Virus Kingdom
III. Monera Kingdom is made up of the Bacteria and Prochloroplycota divisions. In the
Bacteria division, many scientists place algae, protozoa, and water molds, slime molds, and
slime nets because none of these categories of species has an embryo as part of its repro-
ductive cycle. Rather, the species simply divide their cells and grow spontaneously.
IV. Superkingdom Eukaryotae is made up of the Seaweed Kingdom, the Fungi Kingdom
(mushrooms, lichens, yeasts, many molds), and the Plant Kingdom divided up because
they each reproduce in very different ways. For instance, the fungi are not considered
plants because they do not reproduce with embryos, but fungi distinguish themselves from
the Bacteria Kingdom by not containing any chlorophyll, which is the substance in plants
which converts the sun's energy into food.
V. Plant Kingdom includes mosses, liverworts, club mosses, horsetails, ferns, and plants that
make seeds, like all the wildflowers and trees.
A. Lichens & Mosses
B. Grasses, Sedges, Rushes
C. Ferns, Horsetails, Liverworts, Oddballs
D. Aquatic Plants that grow above water.
E. Wildflowers families from Plants of the Pacific Northwest Coast are listed
here, but there are many more in other areas of the continent:
Lilies, Iris, Orchids, Buckwheats, Purslanes, Pinks,
Mustards, Stonecrops, Saxifrages, Buttercups, Roses, Peas,
Violets, Primroses, Carrots, Gentians, Waterleafs, Phlozes,
Borages, Mints, Figworts, Astors, Cacti, Etc.
F. Shrubs
G. Trees
VI. Animal Kingdom includes mammals and marsupials, birds, reptiles and amphibians,
insects and arachnids, worms and leeches, fish, coral and inter-tidal creatures everywhere
from octopus to sea anemones. I've grouped the animal kingdom into the following cat-
egories, somewhat following their taxometric classifications, in the groupings that many
field guides use:
A. Invertebrates
1. Worms, Leeches – Penatodes & Annelids
2. Sponges, Jellies, Starfish and Relatives
3. Crustaceans & Mollusks & Related Anthropoids
4. Octopi, Squid & Similar
B. Vertebrates
1. Spiders, Ticks, Mites, Pedes, Etc.
2. Insects I – Crickets, Ants, Beetles, Roaches, Etc.
Insects II – Bees, Flies, Butterflies, Moths, Etc.
3. Fishes that live where Salmon gives birth and dies
Fishes that live where Salmon goes to school
4. Amphibians (frogs and salamanders)
5. Reptiles
6. Waterfowl, Raptors, Song Birds
7. Marsupials (opossum and kangaroos)
Omnivore Mammals – Insectivora (shrews and moles)
Bats – Monkeys and Humans – Armadillo – Rabbits
Rodentia (includes squirrels, beaver, and porcupine, too)
Carnivore Mammals – Canines – Bears – Coons
Weasels including wolverines, Badgers and Skunks, Otters
Felines – Walrus, Seals, Sea Lions
Whales & Dolphins
Hoofed Herbivores – Antelope – Bison – Muskox, Goats, Sheep
Peccary – Cervidea (elk, deer, moose, reindeer, caribou)
Horses & Donkeys
Index to Wolf Journey (chapters currently uploaded)
• Introduction to Part One - Skills of the Naturalist
• Chapter 1 - Your Secret Place.
• Chapter 2 - Fears & Hazards.
• Chapter 3 - Sensory Awareness.
• Chapter 4 - Sketching & Journaling.
• Introduction to Part Two - Skills of the Tracker
• Chapter 5 - Humans and the Hidden Wilderness.
• Chapter 6 - Shape Shifting.
• Chapter 7 - Mammal Mysteries.
• Chapter 8 - Bird Vocalizations.
• Introduction to Book 3 - Skills of the Herbalist
• Chapter 9 - Caretaking Nature.
• Wolf Journey Handbook for Students & Teachers.
• Chapter 30: Glossary of Terms.
• Chapter 31: Outings Checklists.
• Chapter 32: Understanding Taxonomy.
• Remaining chapters to be uploaded asap.
Wolf Journey is available free online, although donations to the WOLF Foundation - Max Davis Scholarships for earth skills education are requested with the suggested amount of $1.00 per chapter or set of recordings you utilize, with checks payable to the WOLF Foundation, c/o Scott A. Davis, CPA, 103 E Holly #401, Bellingham, WA 98225, or by calling us at 360-799-1997 with your visa or mastercard. An alternative way to contribute is to become a WOLF Booster which gives you the additional benefits of board membership and complimentary access to the Wolf Camp property on Woods Lake. The latter alternative requires completing a property use form. Books and other resources which you will need for successful completion of field exercises throughout Wolf Journey can be purchased through our camp store once it is up and running. In the meantime, we recommend purchasing through Tom & Renee Elpel's wonderful online Granny's Country Store or simply email them at orders@grannysstore.com or call 406-287-3605 to order. We offer this book series as a correspondence course for Wolf Camp alumni and as part of our Summer Camps & School Year Classes and Residential Intensives & Training Camps curricula, but if you would like an instructor to guide you while studying these skills in your own area, we recommend clicking on PrimitiveSkillsLinks.Com to find an earth skills specialist near you who can personally review your field exercises and journaling work. Other schools and outdoor instructors who would like to use this curriculum for their own classes, mentoring, etc, are free to do so. We would appreciate donations, or having your students donate, to the WOLF Foundation as described above. As a supplement to (or instead of) completing the Wolf Journey book series, we also recommend signing up for the Kamana Naturalist Training Program through the Wilderness Awareness School which inspired many of our own field exercises. They can offer academic credit, and they specialize in correspondence mentoring no matter where a student is located.
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