A casserole of taxa
At a reception, a sea-food
casserole is being served,
containing lobster, squid,
mussels, and two types of
oysters. Since all of these
marine organisms are mixed
on the plate, the taxa of the
five species are mixed up in
the table to the side. The
table must be redone in
order to place each
organism in the appropriate
taxon in the hierarchy.
common
name
phylum
class
order
family
Genus
species
squid, American lobster, blue mussels,
American oysters, flat oysters
arthropoda, mollusca, mollusca, mollusca,
mollusca
malacostraca, bivalve, bivalve, bivalve,
cephalopod
decapod, mytiloida, ostreoida, ostreoida,
decapod
nephropidae, mytilidae, ostreidae, ostreidae,
loliginidae
Homarus, Mytilus, Ostrea, Lolgio, Crassostrea
americanus, virginica, edulis, edulis, opalescens
 Construct a table (6 columns and 7
rows) and write TAXA above the first
column. Write above the other
columns the common name of the five
organisms. Name each of the rows:
phylum, class, order family, Genus and
species. Complete the table with the
proper taxonomy.
 Which taxa do the organisms have
different names? Which order
appears under the arthropoda phylum
and the mullusca phylum? What does
the name of this order mean? Which
two Genus contain species with the
same name? What does this word
mean?
 What are the two organisms that are
most closely related? Which organism
is the most distantly related to the
other four?
A casserole of taxa

TAXA
phylum
class
order
family
Genus
species
squid
American
lobster
blue mussels
American
oysters
flat oysters
mollusca
arthropoda
mollusca
mollusca
mollusca
cephalopod
malacostraca
bivalve
bivalve
bivalve
decapod
decapod
mytiloida
ostreoida
ostreoida
loliginidae
nephropidae
mytilidae
ostreidae
ostreidae
Lolgio
Homarus
Mytilus
Crassostrea
Ostrea
opalescens
americanus
edulis
virginica
edulis
 Only in the Genus do the five organisms all have different names. The order that appears
in both the phylum arthopoda and mollusca is that of decapods, which signifies 10 feet.
Both the Genus Mytilus and Ostrea contain a species edulis, which signifies “edible”.
 The American oyster (Crassostrea virginica) and the flat oyster (Ostrea edulis) are the
two organisms most closely related, they share most of the same taxonomy. The American
lobster is the most distantly related of the five, it belongs to another phylum and shares
little in common with the other organisms.