Question

Which of the following is an example of how taxon classification might change?
A. Ecologists determine that pesticide runoff affects one local fish species more than others.

B. A researcher updates his or her records when new behaviors are observed in chimpanzees.

C. Scientists have to update their count of Bald Eagles due to successful conservation efforts.

D. Scientists recognize a new sub-species of tiger based on newly discovered DNA patterns.

Sorry to bother, but I am dreadful at biology.

Answer 1

taxon refers to the classification of species

Answer 2

More generally, taxon is the classification of a group of organisms sharing common phylogenetic roots: i.e. a species, a genus, a clade (not necessarily phylogenetic), etc.

Here is a good list of all the big distinctions: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Biological_classification_L_Pengo_vflip.svg

I think A is correct

B is incorrect: since behavior does not explicitly affect the classification of a group of organisms
C is incorrect: since population size is not relevant to a classification (unless it results in sexual segregation and speciation)
D is also incorrect: even though the newly found tigers are a sub-category of the other tigers, they should still be in the same taxon

A would be my best guess since this actually changes the form of the fish and likely a new taxonomic characterization would be necessary

Let me know if this makes sense

Answer 3

It A