EVOLUTIONARY PROCESSES CREATE DIVERSITY >1.5 million known species! (and that’s only the eukaryotes) 10 million total? Make sense of it all through classification: taxonomy = categories phylogeny = ancestry aka SYSTEMATICS a HUGE task!

Carl Linne’ (aka Linneaus) • Created a system for grouping all organisms broadest group = kingdom most specific = species • Shortened lengthy latin polynomial names to binomials scientific names use genus and species levels of taxa i.e. Homo sapiens 1735

Linnean Taxonomy is a hierarchy of increasingly exclusive groups

Animalia Plantae Fungi Protista Animalia Chordata Mammalia Primate Homindae Homo sapiens H. ergastor H. erectus H. heidelbergensis etc

Same group, but how related? C. Darwin, 1837 E. Haeckel, 1866

Phylogenetic Tree attempts to explain: who is related when they shared an ancestor Phylogenetic Tree Speciation events create branches Junctions indicate a common ancestor

Cladogram a phylogeny based on a shared set of characteristics, for comparing organisms, relative to one another Outgroup jawless fish time is relative, not absolute

Criteria for classifying is homology (similarities based on shared origins) biochemistry genome embryology anatomy

Interesting? Yes. Practical value? YES!

Illustrative Example: time ancestor Illustrative Example: Hawaiian Honeycreepers oldest lineage oldest island