Tree of Life

Today after class, I went off in search of five new taxa to identify. (I realized that the ones I had been planning to identify before probably weren't naturalized, but it was relatively simple finding five more!)

The first "iconic taxa" I came across was a little whitish bug that came crawling out when we overturned a log. We identified this as land-dwelling crustacean, or more specifically, an isopod. (I'm not sure if he counts towards this exercise since we found him in class, but I thought he was really neat so I wanted to include him in my observations.)

The next thing I found was some sort of mold growing on the underside of a log. It was whitish in color. I actually found it under several logs before eventually deciding it was worthy of an observation. I placed it on the tree in the kingdom Fungi, but I hope someone more knowledgeable will be able to ID it more precisely.

Another "iconic taxa" I came across was the class Insecta. I found a tiny little bug in the leaves which I believe was a cricket, and I later found some water striders gliding along the surface of strawberry creek.

I also found a couple of different types of flowers, in the phylum Magnopliophyta, or flowering plants. One of these was on campus along the creek, and another I had seen a few days previously near Tilden park. Both were beautiful and currently flowering!

Another "iconic taxa" I found hiding under a log was a member of the phylum Mollusca. Under one overturned log relatively close to the creek, there was a little greyish slug clinging to the bottom. He wasn't moving whatsoever and didn't seem to appreciate having his house turned upside down so I quickly replaced him.

The last group I will reference is the most obvious, the animals. Within Kingdom Animalia & Phylum Chordata, I very easily found a Fox Squirrel - a mammal of the order Rodenta - as many people in class have been doing. They are extremely prevalent on campus and not shy! Similarly, I found several American Crows, which were so numerous and boisterous they were basically begging to be included in my observations. They are also found in Kingdom Animalia and Phylum Chordata, but are members of the class Aves.

Publicado el febrero 14, 2013 11:43 TARDE por maeganblansett