When you talk about a movie, you might call it a comedy, horror, Disney or
mystery film. Any movies that fall under one of these particular names share
common characteristics. If a movie was full of scary monsters you would
probably consider it a horror film. Just like movies are grouped or classified by
type, animals that share common characteristics are grouped together and
named according to type.
Every known organism is classified with a special Greek or Latin name. These
scientific names are generally given in two parts. The scientific name for the
Great Barracuda, a fish that we have here in South Caicos, is Sphyraena
barracuda. The first part of the scientific name, Sphyraena, is called the
"genus." The genus is used to classify a group of fish that share similar shape
and body make up. The second part of the name, barracuda, is called the
"species." Fish can share the same species name only if they can produce fertile
offspring together. The Southern Sennet, another fish we have here in the
Caribbean, looks similar to the Great Barracuda so it is known by the same
genus name. Since it cannot produce fertile offspring with the Great Barracuda,
however, it has a different species name. Therefore, its scientific name is
Sphyraena picudilla.
As you know, members of the same genus and species are very similar. Some
organisms, however, don’t have enough similarities to be in the same genus. In
this case, scientists use other divisions for classifying organisms, each containing
more organisms than the last: Family, Order, Class, Phyla, and Kingdom. Thus,
the Great Barracuda would be classified in the Kingdom Animalia, Phylum
Chordata, Class Osteichthyes, Order Perciformes, Family Sphyraenidae,
Genus Sphyraena, and Species barracuda. Once you learn to recognize the
way fish and other organisms are classified, their scientific names can give you a
lot of information about them!
Research Update: Bell Sound
Wendy Rogers
Research at Bell Sound is progressing nicely, and we are collecting a large
amount of data to determine whether Bell Sound could be a nursery ground for
reef animals. On Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays from 3:30 p.m. to 6:00
p.m. we go to Bell Sound and lay transects at various locations around the
sound. As we swim the transect lines, we look carefully for mobile fauna
(animals such as fish or crabs that swim or move) to ensure that we count them
before they get scared and swim away. Once this is done, we then lay quadrats
(big squares that are divided with fishing line) at regular intervals along the tape
and count all the plant and animals in the quadrats.
We have discovered lots of organisms in Bell Sound. Many types of
macroalgae, sponges, crabs and fish (especially juvenile fish) are found in Bell
Sound. We also have found thirty-six baby lobsters, sea cucumbers, and
upside down jellyfish. We have yet to see a nurse shark or bone fish during our
transect observations, although we know that both of these animals are found in
the sound. Our senior intern, Drew, has seen these animals up close. Maybe
we will see one soon.
While we have not analyzed our data yet, it appears that Bell Sound would
make a good nursery ground for many of the animals that live on the reefs.
