Serendip is an independent site partnering with faculty at multiple colleges and universities around the world. Happy exploring!

Reply to comment

xhan's picture

Smooth vs Rough

We (Yashaswini and Michelle) categorized different organisms based on the complexity of their textures. The outer-boundaries of most of them varied from smooth, flat, one-dimensional to rough, furry, and three-dimensional textures.

A.      Smooth Organisms
1.       Flimsy and Irregular shaped
·         Bacteria: pseudomonas aeruginosa
·         Streptococcus
·         Amoeba
·         Euglena oxyuris
·         Flatworm Stylochus
·         Volvox
·         Jellyfish
2.       Relatively Flat(Green)
·         Barley Grass
·         Firn
·         Seaweed
3.       Terrestrial Smooth 
·         Mushroom
·         Leech
·         Small Garden Slub
·         Flatworm
·         Earthworm
4.       Marine Smooth
·         Brown Trout
·         Channel Catfish
·         Eel
·         Killer Whale
 
B.      Rough Organisms
1.       Furry/Hairy
·         Wild Dogs           
·         Kangaroo
·         Squirrel Monkey
·         Gorilla
·         Lion
·         Penguins
·         Human
 
2.       Leafy/With Bark
·         Redwood
·         Blue Oak
·         Rock Rose
3.       Scaly and Shelled
·         Lobster
·         Cockroach
·         Spider
·         Ischonodermus Sabulet
·         Turtle
4.       Wings/With Feathers
·         Owls
·         Butterfly
·         Fly
·         Eagle
·         American Robin
·         Ostrich
5.       Miscellaneous outward protrusions
·         E Coli
·         Sponge
·         Sea Urchin
·         Coral
·         Octopus
 
However, on comparing our ingenious (!) classification style with that of professional biologists, we discovered quite a few discrepancies. For example, professional biologists have categorized E Coli under bacteria and Sea Urchins under Chromista; while we categorized these organisms under organisms with miscellaneous outward protrusions, as the projections on both had an uncanny similarity to each other (pink and needle-like), though the projections on the sea-urchin are infinitely bigger than those on the EColi. Another discrepancy was that of the butterfly and the owl. While we categorized them together as organisms with wings and feathers, professional biologists have classified them under Aves (the owl) and Insecta (the butterfly).

 

 

 

Reply

To prevent automated spam submissions leave this field empty.
4 + 1 =
Solve this simple math problem and enter the result. E.g. for 1+3, enter 4.