Classification of Living Things Introduction to Classification By Victoria Barber © Vicki – The Science Lady, Images© graphicsfactory.com
How are things classified? How do you know where to find an item at the grocery store? If items were placed just anywhere, it would be very hard to find the milk! But you know that milk is found in the Dairy section. Similar items are placed together so they are easier to find.
Grouping Makes Things Easy! Living things are also placed in groups to make it easier to study them and their relationship to one another.
Classification Into Kingdoms All living things can be placed into one of six major categories called ‘Kingdoms’: Animal (Animalia) Plant (Plantae) Fungi Protist (Protista) Eubacteria Archeabacteria
Further Classification Organisms can be further classified based on other similarities, such as structure and early development. Phylum Class Order Family Genus Species Going down the list, each category contains organisms that are more and more alike!
Classifying and Grocery Stores Classification of living things is much like organizing items in a grocery store. Similar organisms share the same category, just like similar items share shelf-space in the grocery store. Fuji apples and gala apples are both apples, both fruit, both produce, and both found in a grocery store.
Humans and Horses You might not think humans and horses are much alike, but: Both are animals Both have a backbone and four limbs Both have hair and bear live young Both feed their young milk
Humans and Horses And, there are many differences. See how we only share three categories with horses: Humans Horse Kingdom: Animalia Animalia Phylum: Chordata Chordata Class: Mammalia Mammalia Order: Primate Perissodactyla Family: Hominidae Equidae Genus: Homo Equus Species: H. sapiens E. ferus
Scientific Names Identify Organisms All living things are identified by two names, known as a scientific name. Carolus Linnaeus (1707-1778) developed this two-word naming system – now called binomial nomenclature. It is used by all scientists world-wide! Binomial Nomenclature = Two-Name System Felis domesticus AKA – a cat.
Canis familiaris The system uses the organism’s genus for its first name, and its species for its second name. For example, the scientific name of dog is Canis familiaris Genus and species names are of Latin origin and universal. No matter the language or country, Canis familiaris would mean the organism seen above!
Canis-Canine Canis is a Latin term that refers to dog-like, canine creatures. Wolves, coyotes, jackals, dingos, and dogs all belong to the genus Canis.
Canis species But wolves, coyotes, dogs, and jackals are different enough that they are considered separate species. Canis lupus Canis latrans Canis familiaris Canis aureus
Writing Scientific Names When writing scientific names, the genus name is always capitalized and the species is not. Both names are italicized when typing. Felis leo Felis domesticus Odocoileus hemionus
Practice Using Scientific Names Following are some scientific names – genus and species. Which of these are closely related? Vulpes lagopus Tamias striatus Felis leo Vulpes fulva Canis lupus That’s Right! Vulpes fulva and Vulpes lagopus belong to the same genus and are both species of fox!
Review All organisms are classified into one of six kingdoms based of similarities of structures and functions. All organisms are identified by a two-word naming system called binomial nomenclature. The two names use the organism’s genus and species classification.