1. Classification of Living Things
Mod.B U.1 L.5

2. Organized, Easier to study
Why Do We Classify?
Allows us (scientists) to keep track of the 3 to 10 million different living things on Earth!
Organized, Easier to study

3. Classification:
  Is the systematic grouping of organisms into categories on the basis of evolutionary (or genetic) relationships or physical appearance - shared traits

4. The Science of classifying is called “Taxonomy”
People have been classifying for nearly 2,000 years!

5. Classification - Scientific Naming □Carolus Linnaeus
•The “Father of Taxonomy”
•Developed systems for naming species and organizing them into groups
•Named over 4000 plants & animals
•Used appearance to group species
•Used binomial nomenclature

6. What is Binomial Nomenclature?
•“Bi-nomial” = “two” - name
•“Nomenclature” = a naming system
•Language:  Latin

7. Mountain lion, puma, cougar – Felis concolor Bobcat – Felis rufus
•Example:  
Common house cat – 
Mountain lion, puma, cougar – 
Felis concolor
Bobcat – Felis rufus
Genus  species
 Always capitalized,/ always lower-case
        Both are always italicized in print
•Genus and species are the most specific levels of organization
Felis domesticus

8. Eight Levels of Classification
The modern classification system uses several levels to classify organisms.
The more characteristics that organisms have in common, the more levels they share.

9. NEW System Domain Kingdom Phylum Class Order Family Genus Species
OLD System
Kingdom
Phylum
Class
Order
Family
Genus
Species

10. There are 8 levels of classification that describe a species
DOMAIN •Kingdom •Phylum •Class •Order •Family •Genus •Species Eukarya Animalia Chordata Mammalia Carnivora Ursidae Ursus maritimus Primate Hominidae Homo sapiens Canidae Canis familiaris
The more levels of organization that two organisms share, the more closely related the two organisms are!

11. 6 Kingdoms of Organisms Bacteria (Monera) Archeabacteria Protists
Fungi
Plants
Animals

15. Branching Diagrams
Branching diagrams show the close evolutionary relationships between organisms.
As characteristics differ, branches in the diagram form.

16. Cladograms
Common ancestor

18. Phylogentic (Evolutionary) Tree

19. Dichotomous Keys
Taxonomist have developed special guides know as dichotomous keys to aid in identifying unknown organisms.
A dichotomous key consists of several pairs of descriptive statements that have only two responses.
Narrow down your choices till specimen is identified