Lab TA Name
Assignment 1.
Taxonomy
1a. The Arctic Fox (Vulpes lagopus) and The Date Palm (Phoenix dactylifera)
1b. The Arctic Fox - Phylum Craniata, Class Mammalia, Order Carnivora, Family Canidae. The Date Palm - Phylum Plantae, Class Anthophyta, Order Monocotyledonae and Family Arecales.
1c. The Arctic Fox is found throughout the Arctic tundra regions of the northern hemisphere including Alaska, Canada, Greenland, Russia, Norway, Scandinavia, and even Iceland, where it is the only native land mammal. The Date Palmis limited to California, Massachusetts, and Maryland, where is it considered to be an exotic species.
1d. The website is built in such a way that it is useful for scientists, naturalists, environmentalist, conservationists and students at all levels and anyone with a general interest in the natural sciences. The site provides useful information regarding the plant or animal under study, and basic or very detailed data can be chosen, depending on the depth of study undertaken. References are provided and the website is constructed so that the level of information available can be chosen to suit from primary school children to scientists. However the site appears confided to describing only those animals which live in the Americas continents, and as such is of limited use for those needing information about animals endemic to countries other than these.
2. The NatureServe Encyclopedia of Life site states that its contributors consist of “More than 1,000 conservation professionals”. The occupations of the staff of NatureServe range from natural scientists from GIS specialists to ichythiologists. Many of the people listed on the site hold high ranking positions in separate conservation programs in the USA, Canada and Latin America and the site appears to be an authentic and scientifically valuable one.
3. Although the Glamis Sand Fly (Apiocera warneri) was specifically mentioned in the links in the Index of the Canadian National Collection of Insects (CNCI), subsequent searches using the “Search” button failed to provide any information. A search for the Brown Lacewing (Psectra diptera) achieved much the same results as those for the Sand Fly.
4a. Although a search of the CNCI, in this instance did produce a number of relevant scientific articles, but no direct information. In the cases of both of these insects, NatureServe provides a wide variety of information regarding their distribution, conservation status and population together with references to search for further information. However information regarding their ecology and life history are non-existent.
4b The Canadian National Collection site is vastly more difficult to extract information from than in NatureServe. Although it offers “Google Search” capabilities, it appears that the researcher must know beforehand exactly what he/she is searching for and the use of Latin names is far more hightly regarded than common names.
5. The writer found this site extremely difficult to negotiate and much more confusing NatureServe. When a search result was found it seemed to bear no relationship whatsoever to the search term and the writer spent many hours attempting to find two insects that appeared in both databases.
Works Cited
Defenders of Wildlife. Fact Sheet - Arctic Fox. 2016. 23 January 2016. <http://www.defenders.org/arctic-fox/basic-facts>.
NatureServe. Vulpes lagopus. January 2015. 24 January 2016. <http://explorer.natureserve.org/servlet/NatureServe?sourceTemplate=tabular_report.wmt&loadTemplate=species_RptComprehensive.wmt&selectedReport=RptComprehensive.wmt&summaryView=tabular_report.wmt&elKey=100927&paging=home&save=true&startIndex=1&nextStartInd>.
