History Main / ImprobableTaxonomySkills

YourMileageMayVary if this is only done with a single rare species, which can be viewed as just a rare bit of knowledge the person at hand happened to possess. Also, knowing your local flora and fauna often allows you to readily identify a plant or animal down to the subspecies, something that would be next to impossible if you did not know where the said plant or animal were collected. People who do a lot of hiking in a particular area would normally recognize the common species of plants and animals found in that area right away, regardless of any background in botany or biology. Ultimately what classifies this as a HollywoodScience mistake is the assumption that ANYONE who is smart is able to identify a specific organism with uncanny accuracy... for no other reason than to show off the fact that they're smart.

A fungus, plant, alga, or possibly insect is identified precisely to species with too little material and/or very quickly. Mainly pertaining to investigative shows, but may manifest unexpectedly when TheProfessor is present.

The reality is that the vast majority of plants, algae, and fungi are not distinguishable from trace evidence. And for insects, unless they are very distinctive, it's typically impossible for anyone except a [=PhD=]-qualified taxonomist to identify - even to family or genus in some cases. The other issue with insects is that the larval forms for closely-related groups are extremely similar (if not identical) and identification may require rearing the larva to the adult stage.

But this isn't just true for the flora and insects, but also for plenty of other small animals (worms, mollusks, arthropods, fish, some rodents, etc.) and of course everything that is microscopic. But those aren't really 'hot' enough to figure in TV shows.

This trope will probably fade over time as rapid DNA-sequencing technology continues to become more affordable.

YourMileageMayVary if this is only done with a single rare species, which can be viewed as just a rare bit of knowledge the person at hand happened to possess. Also, knowing your local flora and fauna often allows you to readily identify a plant or animal down to the subspecies, something that would be next to impossible if you did not know where the said plant or animal were collected. People who do a lot of hiking in a particular area would normally recognize the common species of plants and animals found in that area right away, regardless of any background in botany or biology.

* Averted in one of Barbara Hambly's sequels to the Rising of the Dark. One character can instantly identify a small animal from it's bones, but he was highly trained in botany/zoology/magic and the question is: 'rabbit or chicken'.

[[AC: Webcomics]]

* In ''HoneyIShrunkTheKids'', the tiny kids are running away from a gigantic lawn mower and jump into a hole in the ground. Nick immediately identifies the exact species of worm that made the tunnel (despite the worm not even being present). Possibly justified in that they are in his backyard and since he is a science geek, it's at least remotely possible that he knows what species of worm lives in their area.

* In ''DeepRising'', a character swiftly identifies the man-eating worms as to their broad taxonomic group and likely behavior, despite the fact that A) he's only seen the things for a few seconds, B) the taxon in question is known only from fossils, and c) he's a freakin' ''cruise ship designer'', not a scientist! Subverted in that [[spoiler: he's completely wrong: the "worms" are actually tentacles of a Cthulhu-like sea monster]].

* The TV-movie adaptation of Peter Benchley's giant-squid-on-the-rampage novel ''"Beast"'' has the resident scientist instantly identify the squid as ''Archetuthis dux'' from a single sucker-claw and a whiff of ammonia.

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<<|DidNotDoTheResearch|>>
<<|YouFailBiologyForever|>>
<<|HollywoodScience|>>

** And then there is Hodgins, for which this trope essentially defines two-thirds of his job. The other third involves doing much the same, only with particulates, which I'm pretty sure is its own trope... Of course, he ''is'' PhD-qualified for both of these, so it makes more sense than in many of these examples.

** And then there is Hodgins, for which this trope essentially defines two-thirds of his job. The other third involves doing much the same, only with particulates, which I'm pretty sure is its own trope...

** And another time a person who's specialty was in ''art'' identified a specific species of fungal spores thanks to having a boyfriend who studied them. That this was actually accepted in court is a major case of HollywoodLaw.

* The Scan Visor in ''{{Metroid}} Prime'', when used to [[EnemyScan analyze]] creatures from planets (or even dimensions) never before encountered by Samus, the Chozo, the Federation, or ''anyone'', really, can still yield precise information regarding said creatures' morphology, habitat, and even feeding habits and territorial behavior.
** This can be HandWaved if all the scan visor can do is load data on the specific target.
*** This is unlikely, as Samus runs into a handful of freak occurrences, that probably don't have documentation of them. Case in point, the finales of the three Primes: The titular Metroid Prime, in the redraft of the story, has no data on it; in ''Echoes'' the Emperor Ing in addition to Dark Samus' final form probably don't have any form of documentation, and in ''Corruption'' the [[spoiler:majority of the life forms on Phaaze, including the corrupted Aurora Unit]] have never been seen before by civilized minds). The most likely answer is that the Scan Visor can both connect to and load data, as well as make classifications on its own.
**** All together now...THE CHOZO CAN SEE THE FUTURE.

* JurassicPark: Elly: "This shouldn't be here. This plant went extinct."
** They never explained that, either.
*** What's there to explain? Her specialty is paleobotany, i.e., the study of extinct plants. If anyone's going to be able to identify an extinct plant by observing the whole plant, it's her.
**** They were recreating dinosaurs with DNA in blood from mosquitos trapped in amber and then combining it with frog DNA. So how did they get an extinct plant?
*** Ants trapped in amber? Leaves trapped in amber? AMBER trapped in amber?
**** Pollen, obviously.
***** Pollen is plant sperm. It's not obvious that you can create a functional plant from pollen.
****** Pollen cells are gametes, but pollen isn't simply "plant sperm". Pollen culture, while not widespread, is a well document method to produce whole plants. It's a relatively quick method to generate homozygotes for breeding.
** They got this scene from the book, where the plant wasn't extinct (it was a just really old species), but it was 50 times more poisonous than oleander and next to a pool where children would play.
** There are some species of mosquito that eat plant matter, and they didn't exactly have control over whats trapped in amber.
*** Most mosquitoes feed primarily on nectar, and use blood as a kind of vitamin supplement.
*** The Jurassic Park geneticists would recover the contents of such mosquitoes and combine them with amphibian, reptilian, or avian DNA and, to paraphrase, "see what turned out." They never attempted to recreate vegetation that way. A mosquito that had consumed plant matter would yield no result and be discarded. Ergo, the movie inserted a strange PlotHole.
**** Just because the movie doesn't talk about the Park's plant recover division doesn't mean that that division doesn't exist. In fact, any competent attempt to restore ancient animals would be interested in providing plants for them to eat, and dinosaurs are not adapted to eating anything like our modern broadleaf plants. This falls more under "why would they bother mentioning it?" than a plot hole.

* Averted strongly in [[SilenceOfTheLambs]], in which identifying the species of an insect pupa found on the bodies of victims is a notable plot point, and even the professional entomologist consulted needs time and equipment to answer the question.

* According to legend, one night the students of [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baron_Cuvier Baron Cuvier]] (one of the founders of modern paleontology and comparative anatomy) decided to play a trick on their instructor. They fashioned a medley of skins, skulls and other animal parts (including the head and legs of a deer) into a credibly monstrous costume. One brave fellow then donned the chimeric assemblage, crept into the Baron's bedroom when he was asleep and growled "Cuvier, wake up! I am going to eat you!" Cuvier woke up, took one look at the deer parts that formed part of the costume and sniffed [[YouFailBiologyForever "Impossible! You have horns and hooves!"]]
** Impossible in the sense that it was going to eat him, since only herbivores have horns and hooves.

* Col_Rutherford's "[[http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0367882/board/thread/146506319?d=146508542&p=2#146508542 revised script]]" of ''IndianaJones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull'' changes Indy's line when he sees the carnivore ants from "Siafu!" to "Paraponera clavata!". According to the author, this is because siafu are from Africa, while the other are South American, [[MisplacedWildlife where the film takes place]]. But how does an archaeologist identify a species of ant down to scienstific name in a split second?

* In ''Honey I Shrunk the Kids'', the tiny kids are running away from a gigantic lawn mower and jump into a hole in the ground. Nick immediately identifies the exact species of worm that made the tunnel (despite the worm not even being present). Possibly justified in that they are in his backyard and since he is a science geek, it's at least remotely possible that he knows what species of worm lives in their area.

**They got this scene from the book, where the plant wasn't extinct (it was a just really old species), but it was 50 times more poisonous than oleander and next to a pool where children would play.