1. Biological Classification

2. Why classify?
To identify objects (organisms) and gather them into groups whose members are similar to one another.
You classify all the time
Based on a logical method of naming things
Based on categories that have something in common

3. Biological Classification (1)
Universal rules for naming each species (for a start)
Species are grouped into larger categories that share biological significance
This branch of biology is called taxonomy
The branch of biology that relates organisms to each other is called cladistics

4. Biological Classification (2)
Established by the Swedish botanist Carolus (Karl) Linnaeus (von Linne)
Two part names in Latin (binomial nomenclature)
Genus is the first part of the name
Refers to a small group of organisms similar to each other
Species is the second part of the name
Refers to one group of interbreeding organisms (you know the rest)

5. Biological Classification (3)
Important rule (You are wrong if you do not follow these)
Genus names start with a capital letter
Species names start with a lower case letter
In print the names are in italics, in hand writing they are underlined
No exceptions

6. More classification
After Genus there are categories for larger and larger groupings of organisms
Family
Order
Class
Phylum
Kingdom

7. Full classification of the house cat (or if you prefer the camel, it’s classified on page 514)
Kingdom Animalia
Phylum Chordata
Class Mammalia
Order Carnivora
Family Felidae
Genus Felis
Species domesticus

8. Six Kingdoms (not Six Flags)
We will classify using six kingdoms
Eubacteria
Archaebacteria
Protista
Fungi
Plantae
Animalia

9. Wow what does all that mean
Lets go over the chart on page 524

10. Cladistics (1)
Describes evolutionary descent (rather than how an organism looks)
Evolutionary classification is called phylogeny
Makes use of the names from taxonomy
Evidence is mostly from genomics
A clade is a group of species that include a common ancestor and all its descendents

11. Cladistics (2)
A cladogram is a diagram showing the evolutionary relationships among organisms
Look at page 517 and 519