Identifying animals is tricky business.
The other day, I was helping some folks out with an identification of a starfish they had photographed diving, but I stopped short of giving them the full species. "Why?" they asked. "Isn't this just the the XXX?" (they quoted the most common and easily identified species).
"Well. Its complicated."
Hard to explain these things in a a few lines on Facebook or on Twitter so I thought I would take an example of how complicated the whole taxonomy and identification process is, using a widely photographed example, a starfish called
Fromia monilis.
F. monilis occurs widely throughout the Indo-Pacific. It goes by many common names, Necklace star, Tiled star, Candycane star, Peppermint star, etc. Scientists don't use those names because they're so inconsistently used and often because its a contrived name in a field guide, created as a convenience for readers.
This species is often seen in the wild and is a common species in the aquarium trade. You can see it in shallow-reefs from Okinawa to New Caledonia, in the Philippines, Indonesia, etc. and over to the edge of the Indian Ocean.
Bottom line:
This species is distributed over a VAST area. Because it does, the range of variation (discussed below) is likely to be greater.
F. monilis is a bright red and white species with a distinctive color pattern. The plates on its body surface (i.e., the many circles and shapes you see on the body) are also pretty diagnostic. Most of these starfish are about 2-3 inches (about 5-6 cm) in diameter. So far so good.
Here is what I would say is the most commonly encountered and "typical" form of this species.
But bear in mind, that often times, as biologists (such as myself) who specialize in describing and identifying these species, what we often end up working with is a specimen like this...
The dry specimen isn't as impressive as the real, living color one of course, but specimens like this are extremely useful for understanding the species definitions, evolution and ultimately, the taxonomy of these animals.
Some of these specimens have been in museums for, literally hundreds of years and remain essential to our understanding of how these species are defined.
Many of these species get distinguished by fine character differences on these specimens. Some might vary by plate pattern arrangements, or by the number of spines present on the underside, or the particular shape of granules present on the surface. Its often difficult to synch up these characteristics (i.e. the species definitions) with qualities of the animal when it was alive.
BUT, because of dry specimens above, we can usually look at a specimen like this crazy thing below and tell that it is STILL Fromia monilis.
Why?
Specimens in museums, accumulate over time and can be very abundant, giving us an idea of the natural VARIATION of a species. Size. Body forms. Aberrant shapes. etc.
So, you know how, some people have blond vs. brown hair? Or how some people can roll their tongue or perhaps more exceptionally,some folks have an extra toe or finger? Well, this kind of variation is present in all species and can make understanding classification and understanding evolutionary relationships...interesting.
For a species that we have virtually no understanding of, any character variation (without seeing its presence in the population) might be used to distinguish a separate species. Without an understanding of this kind of variation (or having population genetics data of course), someone who has never seen a human being before could separate me from Morgan Freeman as a different species.
In the case of the above specimen of Fromia monilis, having seen MANY other specimens of this species, and understanding (we think?) the variation at play, we know that most known individuals have 5 arms that don't bifurcate. The bifurcation is perhaps due to an attack or some damage during the animal's life time. The extra rays are just an unusual trait, perhaps equivalent to a person with an extra finger.
Color in the individual above is also consistent. Red disk with red armtips. White in between. Okay. What could be more unusual than the 7 rayed crazy thing above??
Enter the 21st Century (and late 20th Century) and the era of Flickr and digital cameras ALL OVER THE WORLD!
So remember how the "typical" Fromia monilis had that particular color pattern??
What happens when you don't have the red color on the armtips?? Could this be a juvenile? (no size indicator on this pic unfortunately)? This specimen is from Indonesia. Could these vary by region?
The one above (w/the red disk) is from Borneo.
Is this the same species? But simply with a different color pattern?? Or a different species??
Some species of starfish are thought to vary by color based on their food, does this one as well?? How important is the color as a feature in identification?
The same questions here. Color patterns vary even more drastically. No red on the disk, but there IS red on the armtips! The patterns are a little different? Is this variation? Size? Or a new species? This one is from Lembeh Strait (Indonesia).
This one from Papua New Guinea. Same color pattern as above.
Here is a
Fromia sp from Thailand. Color and plate patterns are different. Is this a new species?? Or the same species (
F. monilis) showing the starfish equivalent to having lactose intolerance? Or blond hair?
Here is another closely related species, Fromia nodosa which occurs primarily in the Indian Ocean. This species is primarily distinguished based on the larger and more prominent round plates running down the radius of each arm. But it looks familiar, doesn't it??
This individual is from the Maldives (tropical Southern Indian Ocean). It shows the same pattern as
F.monilis above and the distinguishing characteristic is kind of variable itself. In other words, it doesn't always hold up. Does that mean it should just be consolidated into
F. monilis??
Here's another indivdiual of Fromia nodosa, also from the Maldives. On both of these individuals, we also see the marginal plates as larger and uneven in one but NOT the other??
This one is from Thailand... Mayyybe? its
F. nodosa?? And what's going on with the dark armtips???
This strange thing is from the Philippines. It adheres to the definition of
Fromia nodosa (big radial plates, etc.) but its a different color (or at least I assume this is not some photo artefact)!!
And then to make it even MORE confusing.. we have these things from the Red Sea and adjacent areas...
I initially thought this was
Fromia monilis but in fact, they might actually be a separate, already established , but this species might actually be a species in a poorly known genus called
Paraferdina. Further examination of specimens and research is needed to figure out which one is which... This specimen is from the Red Sea.
This one is from Egypt. The color pattern is familiar but the plate patterns on the arms?? Very different and yet, similar... F. nodosa? F. monilis? Paraferdina???
..and so on...
This is mainly to demonstrate the limits of how the colors and patterns get complicated quite quickly.
And yes, at some point, someone may work this out.. Lots of diving and subsequent DNA lab time. Plus looking over photos and museum visits! Woo!
But this also explains why scientists, such as myself, are often more reluctant to give you a full species name for a picture when its sent for identification without a specimen. Are these one species? MANY species? Which ones correspond to pre-existing species?
Falling back on the one, most common name can often disguise the truly rich diversity in these wide-ranging, closely related species which are only now, just becoming understood.
I argued that this was also the case with the "Bobbit worm" (Eunice aphroditois)
So, yes. Knowing more doesn't necessarily give you all the answers, but it does give you some pretty exciting questions!
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