Gorilla Classification
Gorilla Classification
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Subphylum: Vertebrata
Class: Mammalia
Order: Primates
Family: Hominidae
Genus: Gorilla
Species: WESTERN GORILLA | EASTERN GORILLA
Subspecies:
Western Lowland Gorilla (Gorilla gorilla gorilla)
Cross River Gorilla (Gorilla gorilla diehli)
Eastern Lowland Gorilla (Gorilla beringei graueri)
Mountain Gorilla (Gorilla beringei beringei)
Bwindi Gorilla (Gorilla beringei ?)*
Scientific classification of living organisms is known as
Linnaean Taxonomy, named for the person who developed it,
Carolus Linnaeus. This form of classification designates living
organisms into a descending hierarchical structure, starting
with kingdoms at the top. It should however be noted that many
modern biologists consider Domains to be a classification above
Kingdoms. As seen from the outline above, Kingdoms are divided
into phylum (phyla is the plural form) which in turn are broken
down into subphyla, then into classes and so on and so forth.
Basic concept on how species are named.
A species' name is binomial (two words in the name). The first
word is the generic name and always starts with a Capital
letter. The second word is the specific name and always begins
with a small letter. If there's a third word in the name this
refers to the sub-species of that particular species. So for
example Gorilla beringei graueri , Gorilla refers to the genus,
beringei refers to the species and graueri refers to the
sub-species.
THE LONG WINDING ROAD TO MODERN DAY GORILLA
CLASSIFICATION
Gorillas were originally designated the scientific name
Troglodytes gorilla by Thomas Savage in 1847.
However the genus Troglodytes had already been described for the
chimpanzee. And the plot thickens yet; fifty or so years later
someone made the astute observation that the genus Troglodytes
couldn't properly belong to the chimpanzee because prior to
being ascribed to the chimpanzee, it had actually been allocated
to a bird. The wren!
Evidently taxonomy back then was not an exact science. It was
not uncommon for species to be named on the basis of a whim. In
the case of gorilla classification, quite often the individual
who published the description was ignorant (or at best had a
very vague idea) of the geography of Africa, never mind
accurately pin-pointing the place-of-origin of a specimen.
In 1852 the gorilla was eventually designated the genus Gorilla
by Isidore Geoffroy Saint-Hilaire. After that the process of
gorilla taxonomy hummed along more smoothly. That said, it
should be pointed out that even today there're still some issues
of contention; though most experts recognize two species with
corresponding two sub-species apiece, there still some who
contend that there is only one true gorilla species and four
subspecies.
Tip: Gorilla gorilla = Western Species | Gorilla
beringei = Eastern Species
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* The question mark reflects the current contention on whether
this is a true subspecies or merely a mountain gorilla variation
(as it was considered until fairly recently).