1. Taxonomy… Artificial Science at its Best (some times )
…or Artificial Science That You Can Argue About!

2. Carolus Linnaeus

3. Classification Helps Us Keep Track of Things…
1.5 million (or more) species classified so far
Perhaps 100 million more to classify
(even though we can’t decide what a species is )
(the ferocious ongoing battle between the “lumpers” and the “splitters”)
Hierarchy:…….

4. The Problems With Common Names
Language barrier….
Dialect barrier…
First scientific names were more like a paragraph

5. Binomial Nomenclature
2 part name
Genus name first (capitalized)
-a genus is a group of closely related organisms.
-plural for genus is genera
-genus is the more general of the 2 names, species is more specific
Species name first (begin with lower case)
Scientific names should be written in italics
Often the species name is a Latinized term to express something unique and/or important regarding the organism

6. Levels of Organization
Domain
Kingdom
Phylum (body plan)
Class Order Family
Genus
Species
These levels can be subdivided differently too. This is Linnaeus’ original scheme (no domains though)