S7L1. Students will investigate the diversity of living organisms and how they can be compared scientifically.

Essential Questions??? How can we create an illustration of classification? What are the physical characteristics that define specimens from six kingdoms? How can we use a dichotomous key to classify various specimens from the six kingdom? How can we create a dichotomous key?

What is Classification??? Classification is putting things together in orderly groups based on similar characteristics

Why Classify? Scientists classify organisms to help make sense and order the many different kinds of living things in the world. Classification helps scientist to answers important questions such as: How many species are there (population)? What are their defining characteristics of each species? What are the relationships between these different species? There is a specific system scientists use to classify organisms based on the characteristics that they share

History of Classification… Aristotle began classifying animals more than 2000 years ago He classified animals into two major groups – animals with red blood cells and animals without red blood cells He then further grouped the animals according to their way of life, their actions, and their body parts (characteristics) He grouped plants into categories based on their size and appearance

Modern Classification… Before the 1600’s many scientists believed that all organisms were either plants or animals With the invention of the microscope and discovery of more organisms the classification and organization became more complex In the 1700’s a Swedish scientist, Carolus Linnaeus founded what is modern day taxonomy ~ the science of describing, classifying, and naming living things

Linnaeus’ Contributions… Linnaeus classified organisms according to their structure and genetic similarities, not where they live Linnaeus also gave species a specific two-word name (scientific name) Scientists today still use an eight-level system of classification based on shared characteristics

8 Levels of Classification… Every living organism can be grouped into one of three Domains: Archaea, Bacteria, and Eukarya Organism in each domain are then separated into Kingdoms. Kingdom are then sorted into Phylum Each phyla is then sorted into Classes Classes are then sorted into Order Order is then sorted into Families Families are then sorted into Genus Finally, genus sorted into Species ***As each group is split into smaller groups, the organisms are more and more alike.

Mnemonic Device: King Philip Came Over For Good Soup Classification NOW… Mnemonic Device: King Philip Came Over For Good Soup

Binomial Nomenclature By classifying organisms, biologist were able to give organisms scientific names An organism’s genus is always written first; the organism’s species is always written second The genus is Capitalized; the species is written in lower case **Ex: Asian elephant: Elephas maximus **Tryannosaurus rex **Homo sapiens ***Scientific name is ALWAYS either italicized or underlined***

Binomial Nomenclature (cont)… The scientific name for an organism remains the same no matter how many common names it may have Linnaeus made it simple to name each individual organism by giving them a 2-part scientific name Advantages of scientific naming: Accepted by all languages Only one name for each species Each species only has one name