Question

Develop a taxonomic key for the following: cat, dog, cow, buffalo, goat, sheep, parrot, hen, duck. 

Answer 1

Hint: Taxonomic key is used to identify the unknown species. Depending upon the presence or absence of hair on the skin, feather, forelimbs the animals can be categorized into either birds or mammals.

Complete answer:
The taxonomic key is used to identify a specific living being. The taxonomic key is an important instrument for identifying unknown species. The characteristics used for identification may be for the list of specified organisms:
Hair present on the skin
- Cat, dog, cow, donkey, goat, and sheep are animals with fur on the ground.
- Parrots, hen, and duck are hairless species.
Feather Presence:
- Feathered species are parrots, hens, and ducks.
- Cats, dogs, pigs, buffaloes, goats, and sheep do not have feathers.
Forelimb status
- Forelimbs are altered into wings in the parrot, hen, and duck.
- Forelimbs in cat, dog, cow, buffalo, goat, and sheep, are not changed in wings.
Therefore, the given animals are categorized into two groups, mammals and birds, based on the above details.

Additional Information:
There are two types of taxonomic keys.
Dichotomous key: A dichotomous key is a tool that helps the user to identify the natural world items such as trees, wildflowers, mammals, reptiles, rocks, and fish. Keys consist of a series of choices that lead the user to a given item's proper name. For example, a dichotomous key can ask in tree identification, whether the tree has leaves or needles. The key then leads the user down a list of questions if the tree has leaves, and if it has needles a different list of questions arise.
Polyclave keys: Polyclave keys are tools that are used to help classify unknown objects or species. The keys are created by interactive computer software. Polyclave keys use the elimination mechanism. A series of choices are provided to the user which define features of the species we wish to identify. Then the consumer checks a list of character states in the organism they wish to analyze. The software will look to match certain character states with all the species that they could match. If a species has not the character status it will be excluded from the list. The more character states listed the more species that are excluded/eliminated. This allows for the easy elimination of large numbers of organisms that cannot be the specimen. The process goes on until there is only one species (or a shortlist of species) that remains. This enables the user to exclude several potential species and to identify the species, or at least a shortlist of possible species. This goes on till there are only one species left. If all goes well, and the key fits your group of organisms, that is the name of the species you've been finding.

Note: The DKey software is a dichotomous taxonomic key editor that is simple to use and freely available. It can be used for the import, edit, and export of existing keys in different formats. IntKey, SLIKS, Polyclave are some of the software to perform taxonomic keys.