1. Classification

2. Why Classify?
To study the great diversity of organisms, biologists must give each organism a name.
Biologists must also attempt to organize living things into groups that have biological meaning.

3. Assigning Scientific Names
History
18th century scientists recognized problem with naming organisms by their common names
cougar, puma, panther, mountain lion
UK: buzzard hawk, US: buzzard vulture

5. Why all the weird names?
18th century scientists understood Latin and Greek

6. Early efforts at naming organisms
1st attempts at naming organisms often described physical characteristics
PROBLEMS
some names were 20 words long
Different scientists described different characteristics

7. Binomial Nomenclature
(Carolus Linnaeus ~ Swedish botanist)
Two word naming system
1st word is capitalized, 2nd is lowercased and italicized
1st part GENUS / 2nd part special character or location

8. Linnaeus’s System of Classification
Taxonomy  taxonomic levels or taxon (taxa: plural)
Seven levels:
Kingdom
Phylum
Class
Order
Family
Genus
Species

9. Kingdom ~ King
Phylum ~ Phillip
Class ~ Came
Order ~ Over
Family ~ For
Genus ~ Great
Species ~ Soup

10. Grizzly bear (Ursus arctos)
Genus: Ursus  group of closely related species
Contains 5 other kinds of bear including Ursus maritimus.
2nd part: arctos / maritimus  is unique to species within genus (important trait or indication of where the organism lives ~ maritimus: sea)
Giant Panda differs enough to be placed in its own genus
Ailuropoda

12. Grizzly bear (Ursus arctos)
Genera that share many characteristics, such as Ursus & Ailuropoda, are grouped into families ~ (Ursidae)
These bears together with 6 other families of meat-eating animals, (dogs: canidae and cats: felidae are in order Carnivora.
Carnivora is grouped into class mammalian (worm-blooded, body hair, milk) which also includes order primates (humans, apes, monkeys, prosimians)
Class mammalian is grouped with birds (aves), reptiles, amphibians, and all fish into a phylum: Chordata.

13. Taxonomy

14. Linnaeus only named two kingdoms (plants & animals)

16. Modern Evolutionary Classification
Problems with traditional classification
Dolphins fish or mammals
Barnacle, limpet, crab
Because of convergent evolution, sometimes organisms that are very different evolve similar body structures

20. Evolutionary Classification
Darwin’s theory of evolution changed the entire way that biologist thought about classification
scientists began to understand that organisms share certain traits because of their evolutionary history
Biologists group organisms into categories that represent lines of evolutionary descent, not just physical similarities.