Classification Once there was a man named Aristotle…

He was a very smart man who like orderly things (sometimes scientists are like that.)

The world, however, was not orderly. All these random living things…it was a mess! So…he decided to do something about it.

He grouped living things into Plants…

Or Animals.

Then, he had a stroke of genius. He got even more specific and grouped all plants into…

Trees,

Shrubs

And herbs.

Animals were split into Animals of the air…

Water,

Or Land.

Notice any problems? What about frogs, both land and water?

Enter Carolus Linneaus, 2000 years later. He liked things orderly, also. Invented the modern classification system

He wrote a book and decided to group living things in a different way. He grouped living things based on their STRUCTURAL SIMILARITIES.

He grouped similar groups into larger groups, until he had seven groupings.

The Seven Taxons(Groupings): Kingdom Phylum Class Order Family Genus Species

Classification of Humans Kingdom: animal Phylum: chordate Class: mammal Order: primate Family: hominid Genus: Homo Species: sapien

Taxonomy(Systematics) – science of grouping and naming things Scientists classify organisms and assign each organism a universally accepted name Why? By using a scientific name, scientists can be sure everyone is discussing the same organism Lepus arcticus

Linneaus’ smallest grouping was called the species-reproduce with each other. How specific does it go?

Genus- a group of similar species He grouped similar species into a larger grouping called genus.

Binomial Nomenclature GENUS + SPECIES = Scientific name! Examples: Homo sapien Acer rubrum Drosophilia melanogaster Felis concolor Felis domesticus

Today’s Modern Kingdoms Prokaryotes- simple cells 1. Eubacteria- “normal” bacteria found everywhere 2. Archaebacteria- unusual bacteria found in hot springs, brine pools and mud Eukaryotes- complex cells with nucleii 3. Fungus- mold, mushrooms, etc. decomposers 4. Protists- microscopic “left over” group 5. Plants- make food 6. Animals- consumers of food 1 2

Cladogram (Phylogenetic tree)- diagram showing the evolutionary relationships among a group of organisms. Classification