Organising biodiversity What is a species? How do we name species? What do we mean by classification?

Why classify? need to identify pests exactly in order to know how to control them. toxic reaction to a bite, need to know species for treatment which food plants safe to eat communication between people and scientists need effective and common classification to organise information

Classification Classification is the grouping of organisms on the basis of features that they have in common. Taxonomy is the naming of these groups scientifically. Members of a species usually look very similar and can interbreed. Hybrids result if two different species interbreed. You don't always need the whole organism to be able to identify it and sometimes it relies on specimens to be examined at a microscopic level. In order to identify an organism many tools are available to help if the organism is unknown. They include: - field guides - keys - reference collections - databases.

Classification groupings Scientists classify organisms into a number of groups that form a hierarchy. The groups are known as taxa or taxonomic levels. Domain Kingdom Phylum Class Order Family Genus Species Increasing similarity between organisms Increasing number of species

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Domains More recent addition

Kingdoms Currently accepted 5 kingdoms Plantae Fungi Animalia Protista Monera

Saprophytic: Receive nourishment from dead or decaying matter Holozoic: ingestion and internal processing of liquids or solid food particles

Common names vs. binomial names Common names are not accurate the European black-billed ‘magpie’ and the Australian ‘magpie’ are unrelated birds The binomial name tells us the Genus and the Species of an organism Thus it allows us to not only see what an organism SPECIFICALLY is it also allows us to see what it is closely related to

Binomial system of naming Carl von Linné (1707–1778) known as Linnaeus Binomial – two names - Latinised Generic (genus) name (Capital first letter) Species (specific) name (lower case first letter) E.g. Humans scientific name is Homo sapiens, while a kangaroo's scientific name is Macropus rufus. Must be written in italics (or underlined).

Classification is based on the characteristics of organisms. Physical characteristics What the organism looks like Reproductive methods Sexual reproduction or asexual reproduction or both Lay eggs? Give birth to live young? Molecular sequences Using DNA sequences to classify organisms when morphological evidence is not clear Bioinformatics combines mathematical modelling, computer science and biology to compare molecular sequences on a very large scale (this is quite recent). Classification keys Most of these are dichotomous, meaning that you chose between two options.

Apply your knowledge: Classy classifications worksheet Dichotomous key Molecular sequencing of organisms