TAXONOMY

Taxonomy Field of biology that identifies and classifies organisms Linnaeus Classification: hierarchy of taxa (group) ranked from the broadest, most general groups to the smallest, most specific groups

Taxa “Don King Philip Came Over For Good Spaghetti” D = Domain K = Kingdom P = Phylum** C = Class O = Order F = Family G = Genus S = Species **Plants are divided into Divisions instead of phyla

Example: House Cat

Binomial Nomenclature Two-name naming An organisms scientific name consists of the genus name and the species name The genus is capitalized and the species is not The species must be in italics or underlined i.e. Felis sylvestris or Felis sylvestris The genus can be abbreviated to a single letter F. sylvestris

Phylogeny Evolutionary classification The higher the level of taxon, the farther back in time the common ancestor is An analysis of derived characteristics is used to generate a cladogram These diagrams use similarities to show the evolutionary relationships Derived characteristics are used as milestones of evolution to better organize different species

Example of a Cladogram