Taxonomy

Taxonomy: An Introduction Taxonomy is the classification of organisms in an ordered system that takes into account natural relationships. The taxonomic system was founded by Swedish botanist Carolus Linnaeus in the 1700s It is the way of classifying or organizing organisms based on their evolutionary relationships Widely accepted by the scientific community **keep in mind, taxonomy is human-made

The 8 Taxa (sing. Taxon) A taxon is a category or group in which we classify organisms. All organisms can be classified or organized based on 8 levels of taxa Taxonomy is hierarchical and proceeds from very broad categories down to very specific categories (This diagram shows “life” at the highest level. “Life” is not considered to be a taxon)

Memorizing the Taxa Use this handy mnemonic! :D King Philip Came Over For Good Scotch!

Taxon Level 1: Domain Broadest taxon There are 3 domains: Eukarya, Bacteria, Archaea Organisms belonging to the Eukarya domain all have eukaryotic cells Bacteria and Archaea consist of organisms with prokaryotic cells. Biochemical and RNA markers differentiate Bacteria and Archaea

Taxon Level 2: Kingdom There are 6 main kingdoms: Bacteria Archaea Animalia Plantae Fungi Protista

Taxon Level 3: Phylum You will be learning about a number of different phyla (plural of phylum) for the rest of the year! Some of the phyla you’ll discuss: (don’t write these down) Porifera, Cnidaria, Nematoda, Arthropoda, Platyhelminthes, Annelida, Mollusca, Echinodermata, and Chordata!

Taxon Levels 4-6 Class, Order, Family As you descend to the lower taxa, the criteria for belonging to a certain taxon becomes more specific.

Taxon Levels 7-8: Genus and Species Multiple species can belong to a genus Example: In the Panthera genus, the species lion, tiger, jaguar, leopard, and snow leopard exist. Species is the most specific taxon, and only one type of organism belongs to a species. Example: A tiger is classified as genus: Panthera species: tigris

Example: Humans

Binomial Nomenclature Roughly translates to: Two Name System of Naming Things It is a formal system of naming living things by combining two names to give each species a unique scientific name. The scientific name consists of the genus name and the species name. The genus name is always capitalized The species name is always in lowercase Both parts of the name are always italicized (if writing by hand, underlined) Scientific names generally have Latin roots

Examples

Taxonomy Check-In Quiz

What is the correct way of writing the scientific name for a housecat? Felis domestica Felis Domestica felis domestica

Which taxon will include the most organisms? Family Order Kingdom Class

What are the three domains? Eukarya, Protista, Archaea Bacteria, Eukarya, Archaea Bacteria, Archaea, Animalia Eukarya, Plantae, Bacteria

Which is not a kingdom? Archaea Cnidaria Plantae Fungi

If two organisms are in the same family, they must be in the order. True False

If two organisms are in the same phylum, they must be in the same class. True False