Sterna hirundo, Linnaeus, 1758.

Oh, drama, how you very nearly work as a substitute for a well taken photograph.

And apologies, viewers, but it's the best you're getting today.


Our special guest today belongs to the:

Eukaryota (as to most things you can see, barring stromatoliths and a few other, mostly phototrophic, colonial prokaryotes);
   Animalia (As does everything on this blog, thus far).
     Eumetazoa (I've yet to take a single photograph of a sponge, the most noteworthy animal-but-not-eumetazoan group).
       Bilateralia - not corals, jellyfish or co. Starfish, interestingly, do belong to the Bilateralia, but develop a radial - typically 5-rayed - symmetry upon metamorphosis.
         Nephrozoa - probably a redundant level of classification, which was originally held to seperate some primitive Deuterostomes from the rest of the bilaterally symmetrical world. 
           Deuterostomia - in a departure from the general tendency of this blog, the featured creature is NOT an insect. Or a spider. Or similar.
             Chordata - it's not a sea-urching, starfish or sea-cucumber.
               Craniata - it's not a sea-squirt.
                 Vertebrata - it's not a hagfish.
                   Gnathostomata - it's not a lamprey.
                     Teleostomi - it's not a typical shark, ray or guitarfish.
                       Osteichthyes - it's also not a member of an extinct group of sharks...
                         Sarcopterygii - it's not a ray-finned fish...
                           Tetrapoda - it's not a coelocanth or lungfish.
                             Reptiliomorpha - it's not a frog.
                               Amniota - it's not a member of an extinct lineage of reptile-like animals without watertight eggs...
                                 Reptilia - based on limiting and probably outdated classifications, it's not a mammal.
                                   Romeriida - nor is it a tortoise.
                                     Diapsida - there is a distinction between the Romeriida and the Diapsida, but I'm fairly sure it's extinct.
                                       Sauria - another more-or-less redundant division... the number of these should give some hind to the endpoint.
                                         Archosauromorpha - it's not a lizard, snake or tuatara.
                                           Archosauria - it really isn't a lizard, snake or tuatara.
                                             Avemetatarsalia - it's also not a crocodile or alligator. Or ghavial.
                                               Dinosauria - it's not a member of a couple of currently insignificaant extinct groups...
                                                 Saurischia it's not a Stegosaurus. Or a Triiceratops. Or an Iguanodon.
                                                   Therapoda. It's not a Diplodocus, Brachiosaurus or similar Sauropod...

                                                     Tetanurae - um... If my phylogeny of extinct dinosaur groups holds up, it's not a Ceratosaur, or related group.
                                                       Coelurosauria - it's also not an Allosaurus.
                                                         Maniraptora - it's not a T-rex. Sorry, and all that.
                                                           Aves - it's not a velociraptor.
                                                             Euornithes - it's not, among other things, Archaeopteryx.
                                                               Neornithes - it's not various extinct feathery things...
                                                                 Neognathae - it's not an ostrich or a kiwi.
                                                                   Neoaves - It's not a duck or a chicken.
                                                                     Charadriiformes - it's not a pigeon, a blackbird, a crane...
                                                                       Lari - it's not an oystercatcher.
                                                                         Sternidae - it's not a gull, it's:

 Sterna hirundo

Linnaeus, 1758

 And here it is:

 Remember I said how drama could almost substitute for a well taken photograph? I feel I was being honest. It's has passing interest, but is rather weighed down by the shoddy photography. Taken on Chichester canal, Chichester, West Sussex, UK, in June 2013.

It's the european Common tern, and as an interesting note, it's generic name, Sterna, comes from an old English word for terns, while its specific epithet (hirundo) references the archaic description of terns as "Sea swallows."



That's all, folks.