1. The science of classifying organisms Section 9.1 in your textbooks
Taxonomy
The science of classifying organisms
Section 9.1 in your textbooks

2. Key Terms Taxonomy Binomial nomenclature Species Genus Taxa Phylogeny
Dichotomous key

3. Why do we need to classify?
Imagine a grocery store…
How do you know where to find the fruits? The vegetables? The meat? The frozen food?
How is the store organized?
Think about your computer…
How are the files organized?
Are all of your pictures and music and documents in the same folder?

4. When you have a lot of information, it is best to organize and group items so that you can find them easier or easily see their relationship to other items.
….. This is
why we
classify!

5. Classifying Organisms
About 1.5 million species have been named
Estimated to be millions of species yet to be discovered!
Taxonomy: groups similar organisms together & assigns each one a name

6. How do biologists NAME organisms?
The “common names” people use are often misleading or confusing
Organisms may have more than one common name (and different names in different languages!) or their common name may cause you to think of another organism…

7. Wolf spider
Spider monkey
Horse
Seahorse
Sea monkey

8. Gray Wolf
Black Bear

9. Firefly or Lightning bug
Larch or Tamarack
Poplar or aspen
Cottonmouth or Water moccasin

10. Mud puppy
Panda Bear
In Chinese: Da xiong mao
Big bear cat ??!!
Red panda

11. Scientific Names
In order to communicate effectively, scientists must have a consistent naming protocol
All organisms have only 1 scientific name
Usually Latin or Greek
Developed by Carl Linnaeus (Swedish botanist, )
Naming and classifying organisms are both part of taxonomy

12. Binomial Nomenclature
2-word naming system
Written in italics or underlined
1st word is Capitalized (Genus)
2nd word is lowercase (species)
Can be shortened to: G. species
Scientific names are usually based on some characteristic of the organism and show similarities in anatomy, or evolutionary history.

13. Members of the same genus are closely related
Only members of the same species can interbreed (under natural conditions)
Some hybrids do occur under unnatural conditions
e.g. Ligers are crosses between tigers and lions, Zeedonks are crosses between zebras and donkeys!

14. Wolf spider
Hogna lenta
Spider monkey
Ateles arachnoides
Horse: Equus ferus
Seahorse: Hippocampus sp.
Sea monkey: Artemia sp.

15. Gray Wolf: Canis lupus
Black Bear: Ursus americanus

16. Firefly or Lightning bug
Photinus pyralis
Larch or Tamarack
Larix decidua
Cottonmouth or Water moccasin
Agkistrodon piscivorus
Poplar or aspen
Populus tremula

17. Mud puppy: Necturus maculosus
Panda Bear
In Chinese: Da xiong mao
Big bear cat ??!!
Ailuropoda melanoleuca
Red panda: Ailurus fulgens

18. Linnaeus also created a system that we use today that places organisms into a few large groups (KINGDOMS) and then those groups are divided into smaller groups (taxa).
KINGDOM
PHYLUM
CLASS
ORDER
FAMILY
GENUS
SPECIES
Each group gets smaller and more specific, just like when you group your files into folders on the computer.

19. King Philip Came Over For Great Soup
To help you remember…
King Philip Came Over For Great Soup

20. Human
Cougar
Tiger
Pintail Duck
Kingdom
Animalia
Phylum
Chordata
Class
Mammalia
Aves
Order
Primate
Carnivora
Anseriformes
Family
Homindae
Felidae
Anatidae
Genus
Homo
Felis
Panthera
Anas
Species
sapiens
concolor
tigris
acuta

21. Primitive Classification
Aristotle said that humans are the most complex organisms, so they should be at the top of the “ladder”
Scala naturae
Simpler organisms are beneath humans

23. (less) Primitive Classification
Linnaeus grouped species mainly on visible similarities and differences
The more features organisms have in common, the more closely they are related.

24. Modern Evolutionary Classification
Today, taxonomists group organisms into categories that represent lines of evolutionary descent (phylogeny)
Evolutionary relationships among a group of organisms can be shown on a phylogenetic tree or a cladogram

25. Cladogram

27. Similarities in DNA and RNA
DNA & RNA is similar across all life forms
Genes of many organisms show important similarities at the molecular level
DNA shows evolutionary relationships & helps to classify organisms

28. The Six Kingdoms Kingdom # of Cells Energy Cell Type Cell Wall Habitat
Examples
Eubacteria
Unicellular
Autotrophic & heterotrophic
Prokaryote
Often present
Everywhere
Bacteria, cyanobacteria,
E. coli
Archaebacteria
Autotrophic & chemotrophic
Present
Extreme environments (salt lakes, hot springs, animals’ guts)
Methanogens, extreme thermophiles, extreme halophiles
Protista
Mostly unicellular, some multicellular
Eukaryote
Absent
Aquatic
Algae, amoebas, paramecium, protozoa
Fungi
Mostly multicellular
Heterotrophic
Terrestrial
Mushrooms, yeast, mould
Plantae
Multicellular
Autotrophic
Mostly terrestrial
Mosses, ferns, trees, grass, flowers
Animalia
Aquatic & terrestrial
Sponges, worms, lobsters, starfish, humans

29. Dichotomous Keys
A dichotomous key is a written set of choices that leads to the name of an organism.
2 choices at each level
Scientists use these to identify already named unknown organisms

30. Hypothetical Dichotomous Key

31. Try it…
Classify each of the whales on page 332 using the dichotomous key on page 333.
Create a dichotomous key based on hypothetical species names for the insects on page 333.

32. Activity 9.1.1 Figure 7: killer whale (Orcinus orca)
Figure 8: humpback whale (Megaptera novaeangline)
Figure 9: beluga (Delphinapterus leucas)
Figure 10: narwhal (Mondon monoceros)
Figure 11: sperm whale (Physeter macrocephalus)
Figure 12: blue whale (Balaenoptera musculus)
Figure 13: bowhead whale (Balaena mysticetus)

33. Insect Key - example General Insects a) Has wings b) No wings Go to 2
Ant
2. a) Hairy body
b) No hair on body
Bee
Go to 3
3. a) Large, colourful wings
b) Hard, shell-like wings
Butterfly
Go to 4
4. a) Green colour
b) Black & red colour
Green beetle
Black & red beetle