1. Taxonomy & Binomial Nomenclature
Taxonomy is the science of naming and classifying organisms

2. History... Aristotle- 2000+ years ago. Carolus Linnaeus- in 1750’s
Groupings based on structural similarities
Had poor definitions of standards
Carolus Linnaeus- in 1750’s
Developed binomial nomenclature
“two name naming system.”
Allowed for standardizing across languages
Used Latin names

3. Binomial Nomenclature
Binomial Nomenclature= The two names are the genus and the species
Uses a standardized format
Genus- capitalized, species- all lowercase
Either italicized or underlined
An International Commission controls and okay's new names
Felis domesticus or Canis familiaris

4. Why use Binomial Nomenclature?
Eliminated confusion over common names:
Felis concolor is variably called puma, cougar, panther, mountain lion
The robin in England is Erithracus rubicola, in the U.S. a robin is Turdus migratoris

5. Seven (Eight) Major Groupings
Each of these groupings (except Kingdom) can be further sub-divided by adding prefixes such as Super-, Supra-, Infra-, or Sub- in front of the grouping name. For example: Subclass or Superorder
There are 7 major levels of organization:
Kingdom
Phylum
Class
Order
Family
Genus Species
Some sources are now adding an 8th level of organization to the top of the list: the Domain

6. Seven (Eight) Major Groupings
As with Aristotle, groupings are still based on similarities.
The types of similarities are much more standardized:
Structural
Biochemical
Chromosomal (DNA) similarities

7. Definitions Biological species
A group of similar organisms capable of interbreeding and producing fertile offspring.
This is a limited definition with several notable exceptions
wolf/dog, wheat/rye, some fish

8. the story of the organism’s evolution the development of the embryo
Cladistics
Cladistics
A system of studying similarities between organisms to try to determine an evolutionary sequence.
"ontogeny recapitulates phylogeny"
the story of the organism’s evolution
the development of the embryo
retells

9. Dichotomous Keys Dichotomous Keys
Di= “two”, chotomy= “division/cut”
A system of dividing a set of objects into similar groups by asking a series of questions that have only two choices.
Develop a dichotomous key to identify everyone in a small group of students.