Classification By Mrs. Alldred Edited Mrs. Rogers

Classification  The arrangement of organisms into orderly groups based on their similarities.

Classifying  Makes things easier for biologist to find answer to many important questions such as:  How many known species are there?  What are the characteristics of each species?  Why are some species extinct?

Levels of Classification  Domain,kingdom, phylum, class, order, family, genus, and species

Mnemonics DKPCOFGSDKPCOFGS

Classification  Did  King  Phillip  Came  Over  For  Good  Spaghetti DKPCOFGSDKPCOFGS

Classification Pyramid Kingdom Phylum Class Order Family Genus Species Domain

Taxonomy  The science of identifying, classifying, and naming living things.

Carolus Linneaus  Lived in 1700 ’ s  Attempted to classify all known organisms by only their shared characteristics.  Example: If it swam or ran or if it had hair or scales

Modern Classification  Based on evolutionary relationships.  Grouped according to what organism that scientist think are their ancestors.

Naming Names  An organism ’ s scientific name is always the same for a specific organism no matter how many common names it has.  Scientist from all over the world use the same scientific name.

What is this animal called?  Skunk  Une Mouffette  Cheche  Un Zorrillo  Mephitis mephitis

Naming names  Before Linneaus some scientist used as many as 15 Latin names.  Linneaus used his observations to devise a naming system for organisms known as binomial nomenclature.

 Linneaus gave each organism a two part name.  “ bi ” = two “ nomen ” = name  Binomial nomenclature= two names  First part is the genus, 2 nd part is the species.

 The scientific name must consist of the genus name and the specific name.  Specific name is the same as the species.  Elephas maximus- Asian Elephant  What is the genus?  What is the specific name?  What is the species?

 The first name is capitalized, the second name is not.  Both names should either be underlined or Italicized.

Scientific Name  Homo sapien or Homo sapien  Genus= Homo  Species (Specific Name)= sapien  Most scientific names are in Greek or Latin

EX: Felis domesticus  Felis = _________  Domesticus= ___________

Greek & Latin Names  The name actually has a full meaning.  Ex: Tyrannosaurus rex- 1 st part = “ tyrant lizard ”  2 nd part = “ King ”

Give a name for this bird  Scientist around the world would have a hard time understanding this name.

But it has a scientific name: Passerina cyanea

Dichotomous Key  Taxonomist have developed special guides known as a Dichotomous Key  Used to aid in identifying unknown organisms.

Turn to page 226 in science book  We are going to identify the animal on the left  Go to #1 –read it and follow directions!

Review  1. Why do scientist use scientific names for organisms?  2.Explain the two parts of a scientific name.  3. List the eight levels of classification.  4.Describe how a dichotomous key helps to identify unknown organisms.

The End