Re: what is Taxonomic classification, and common names.

Hey Brandon,

This is a great question.  Typically as a biologist, when somebody asks me for a "common name" and a "taxonomic classification" I think of the regular, English-speaking name for an organism, and then the scientific name for that same specifies.  But I suspect that in this case your teacher is asking for something a little different.

The organisms you've listed are (mostly) different kinds of archaea (this is their taxonomic classification).  Archaea are microorganisms that sort of look like bacteria, but behave in very different ways.  For a long time, scientists considered them a kind of bacteria, but their DNA shows that they represent a distinct domain of life. 

A really neat thing about archaea is their ability to live in extreme environments (so-called "extremophiles ") and/or produce unusual substances.  For instance, some archaea are extremely tolerant of heat...they can live in water that is near the boiling point.  Pyrococcus furiosus, for example, thrives in water that is 100°C - very hot!  This particular kind of archaea is called a thermophile .  In Greek this means "heat loving." When your teacher says common name, I think this is probably what they are asking for.  I'll leave it up to you to look up the other two and find out the Greek origins of those words. 

As a side note, archaea are also very interesting to scientists because their cellular machinery is so well adapted to work in extreme environments.  Many enzymes from these organisms are commonly used in biology labs, for instance. 

I hope this helps you along!

Billy

PS - Wikipedia's entry for archaea has a great list of several examples of these organisms, and I suggest looking over it!