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History of Classification
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New organisms are still being found and identified
Species of organisms According to livescience.com, there is approx. 1 trillion species of organisms New organisms are still being found and identified
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Aristotle divided organisms into plants & animals
Early Taxonomists Aristotle is given credit for developing the first widely accepted system of biological classification Aristotle divided organisms into plants & animals Plants he classified into 3 groups, herbs, shrubs, and trees depending on the size and structure Animals were classified according to various characteristics including habitat and physical differences Aristotle’s system was not based on evolutionary history of animals
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Carolus Linnaeus 1707 – 1778
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18th century taxonomist Called the “Father of Taxonomy” Linnaeus’s system was based on physical and structural similarities of organisms; as a result, the groupings revealed the relationships of the organisms
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Developed naming system still used today known as binomial nomenclature
Binomial nomenclature is the 2-word naming system that is written in Latin Genus, which is the first word, is the group the animal belongs in (always capitalized) Specific epithet, second word, describes a characteristic of the organism (never capitalized) Binomial nomenclature made communication about certain species much easier
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Binomial Nomenclature
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Dichotomous Key Sometimes just having a little bit of information can help identify organisms, but it doesn’t always help you get to the answer that you want to get to Taxonomists have developed a tool called a dichotomous key to help identify organisms when there is only a little bit of information provided A dichotomous key asks a series of questions that can be answered in only 2 ways; the questions gradually help to narrow down the list of possible organisms
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Example of Dichotomous Key
1a Tentacles present – Go to 2 1b Tentacles absent – Go to 3 2a Eight Tentacles – Octopus 2b More than 8 tentacles – 3 3a Tentacles hang down – go to 4 3b Tentacles upright–Sea Anemone 4a Balloon-shaped body–Jellyfish 4b Body NOT balloon-shaped - 5
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