Animal Cracker Taxonomy

For the, like, two archaeologists out there who read this blog, and anyone else of the scientific persuasion, here is another fine piece of unnecessary snack-food-based research. As in other scientific fields, archaeologists frequently must grapple with the problem of practical and meaningful classification of objects, in our case typically artifact classification. And anyone who has ever taken (or worse, taught) an introductory archaeology class will remember that first torturous day of discussing taxonomy, typology, assemblages, seriation, and other similarly confusing terms.

This is apparently an old webpage, but it's new to me. Here a biologist attempts to create a taxonomy of animal crackers based on their recognizable and classifiable features. Taste did not factor into the classification scheme, but I do believe that I have personally eaten my way through this entire taxonomy.

CLASSIFICATION OF ANIMAL COOKIES, ANIMAL CRACKERS, AND RELATED TAXA
by Mark E. Eberle, Fort Hays State University.


See also: peeps research.