17.1 Classification

What do we do with evolutionary information? Classification- grouping of objects or organisms based on a set of criteria. Taxonomy- the discipline of biology primarily concerned with identifying, naming and classifying species based on natural relationships. The name of a grouped organism is called a taxon. We use the Linnaeus system of naming.

Classification King Phillip Came Over For Good Soup

Species and Genus A species is a specific type of organism. Ex: sapien Genus is a group of species that are closely related and share a common ancestor. Ex:Homo

Family, order, class, phylum Family is the next higher taxon, consisting of similar, related genera. Ex: homindae Order contains related families. Ex: Primate Class contains related orders. Ex: mammalia Phylum contains related classes. Ex: chordata

Kingdoms There are 4-6 different kingdoms. 4-6 because the scientific community cannot decide on the division of protists and viruses. The decided kingdoms are Protists (unicellular eukaryotes), Fungi (mushrooms, etc.), Plantae (plants), Monera (bacteria), and Animalia (animals and humans)

Kingdom & Domain Kingdom is made up of all the related phyla. Ex: Animalia Domain- this is the largest level of classification. Not normally characterized in the Linnaeus system. There are 3 different domains: Prokarya (bacteria), Archaea, and Eukarya (humans). This classification is based on types of cells.

Animal Kingdom The animal kingdom consists of vertebrates and invertebrates. Vertebrates- having backbones There are 5 types of vertebrates Mammals Amphibians Birds Reptiles Fish Invertebrates- not having backbones

Cladograms

Key Points The evolutionary information collected by scientists is used to classify organisms into different groups.