Classification of Life

Classifying Organisms Classification: is the process of grouping things based on their similarities. Non living things can be classified based up external features like hard vs. soft, round vs. triangular, or big vs. small. Example: You could classify sports equipment based on it’s external features

It’s Your Turn-Classify This Now it’s your turn try classifying the following items. Remember you can group them together based on a variety of physical characteristics. Here’s your items: SCOTCH TAPE, PENCILS, RUBBER BANDS, STAMPS, MARKERS, ERASERS, RULERS, ENVELOPES, PAPER CLIPS, and PAPER. Be Prepared to Share your Answer!!!

How did you classify things? What was your criteria or external features you based your classification on? Could you have picked a different characteristic and classified things differently?

Taxonomy Taxonomy is the scientific study of how Living Things are classified. There are 1.7 million known species of plants, animals, bacteria, etc. There is constantly new organisms being discovered and it’s important for biologists to have all living things organized. New Species Discovered Last Year Top 10 Weird Species Recently Discovered 2012 NEW SPECIES DISCOVERED VIDEO GIANT RAT DISCOVERED

Classification is Important Classification is important because… 1. It helps identify unknown organisms 2. It helps us to realize what types of organisms are surviving and why they are surviving. 3. It helps us organize information we learn about new organisms.

Why is Classification Important? Imagine you walk into a library and ask for a book on “Whales” and the librarian says I know I have a book on whales its somewhere in here but I’m not sure where. If you wanted to find your book on “Whales” you would have to look through hundreds and thousands of books to find the book you want. This would be a giant waste of time. Classification systems are important because they organize our knowledge for us. When things get sorted into groups it makes them easier to understand and it makes it easier to see the relationships between them.

Carolus Linnaeus Classification System Carl Linnaeus was a Swedish scientist in the 1750’s. (notice the cool wig he must have been the talk of the town) He developed a classification system that we still use parts of today

Carl Linnaeus Classification System Linnaeus developed a naming system called binomial nomenclature where each organism is given a two part name. The first part of an organisms name is its genus. A genus is a classification grouping that contains similar or closely related organisms.

Carl Linnaeus Classification System The second part of the naming system is the species. A species is a group of similar organisms that can mate and produce fertile offspring in nature What is the genus and species name for human beings? Homo sapien Notice the Genus is capitalized and the species is not. When you go to the zoo they will often times have the genus and species names listed. Classification Video

4 Organisms I have 4 Organisms and I know their genus and species names. Of the following organisms which are most closely related? 1. Canis lupus 2. Megaptera novaeangliae 3. Ailurus fulgens 4. Canis rufus

4 Organisms 1. Canis lupus (Grey Wolf) 2. Megaptera novaeangliae (Humpback Whale) 3. Ailurus fulgens (Red Panda) 4. Canis rufus (Red Wolf)

Classification Today Modern classification has changed because often times in addition to classifying organisms on external characteristics we use genetic similarities. (If they have similar DNA)

Classification Today Classification today uses 7 levels to classify organisms. For example how many people in this room live in Utah? How many people have ever left the state of Utah? How many people have ever lived somewhere besides Utah? How many people have lived in a different country? For each question your larger classification group gets smaller and breaks down into sub-groups.

Seven Levels of Classification 1. Kingdom 2. Phylum 3. Class 4. Order 5. Family 6. Genus 7. Species King Phillip Came Over From Germany Swimming Kings Play Chess On Fine Grain Sand Any time you use Wikipedia to research an organism it has their classification groups on there Koala Wikipedia Search

Classification Key Classification Key is a series of paired statements that describe the physical characteristics of an organism. (This is also known as a Dichotomous Key or Taxonomic Key) Taxonomic Keys helps you identify the organisms you are looking at. Have you ever went hiking and wondered what the name of the trees, flowers, or insects around you are? Money Taxonomy Key Have you ever played the 20 Questions Game? It uses the same principle in sorting similar characteristics until it knows what you are thinking

The 6 Kingdoms: To Be Continued……. The Six Kingdoms that we divide life up into are: Archaebacteria, Eubacteria, Protists, Fungi, Plants, and Animals. Some people now divide the kingdoms into 5 where they have combined Archaebacteria and Eubacteria into a Kingdom called Monera