Classification of Living Things

What is classification? Classification: putting things into orderly groups based on similar characteristics.

Ways we classify things Supermarket aisles Libraries Classes Teams/sports Members of a family Roads Cities Money Living Things

What about all the living things on the planet….. So how many different forms of life are there? Hundreds? Thousands? Millions? It is very difficult to imagine how many species of plants, animals and other creatures there are on the planet. Consider the swallowtail butterfly. It is just one of many butterflies, and butterflies are only one type of insect...

In the world today... There are about 600 species of swallowtail butterfly But this is only one group of butterflies

There are about 16,000 species of butterfly But we haven't included the moths! There are about 165,000 species of butterfly and moth But this is only one group of insects

There are about 1,000,000 species of known insects But insects are only one type of arthropod

There are about 1,075,000 species of arthropod But arthropods are only one type of animal

There are about 1,500,000 species of animal But animals are only one type of living thing

There are about 70,000 species of fungi There are about 400,000 species of plant And there are at least 140,000 species of 'protist'

But there are more types of living thing... Scientists cannot begin to imagine how many bacteria there are!

When you consider how many living things there on the planet, you can begin to understand the importance of classification. Classification helps scientists organize the diversity of life on Earth.

Taxonomy: the science of describing, naming, and classifying organisms. Taxonomists give a unique scientific name to each species they know about whether it’s alive today or extinct. The scientific name comes from one of two “dead” languages – Latin or ancient Greek. Why use a dead language?

Consider this…

Devil Cat

Ghost Cat

Mountain Lion

Screaming Cat

Puma

Florida Panther

Cougar

Soooo……why use a scientific name? There are at least 50 common names for the animal shown on the previous 7 slides. Common names vary according to region. Soooo……why use a scientific name?

Biologists use the classification system to organize living things into groups so that the organisms are easier to study. Classification- the process of grouping things based on their similarities. Biologists aren't the only scientists who classify. Geologists classify, sometimes even we classify things Taxonomy is useful because once an organism is classified a scientist knows a lot about that organism.

Binomial Nomenclature Developed by Carolus Linnaeus Two-name system Genus and species named using Latin or Greek words

The modern system of classification has 8 levels:

Helpful way to remember the 8 levels Dumb kids playing catch on freeways get squashed Or…make up your own… D K P C O F G S

Types of Domains Bacteria Archaea Eukarya Unicellular Unicellular, live in extreme environments Eukarya Unicellular or multi-cellular Protists, Fungi, Plants, and Animals

Domains and Kingdoms

Rules used to write scientific names Homo sapiens 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 Scientific names of organisms are always italicized or underlined