1. Classification

2. Classification is a way of life….

4. Evolution has created great diversity of life
More than 2.5 million different kinds of organisms have been identified.
It is estimated that as many as 20 million more may be discovered.

5. Naming and grouping these organisms helps us see relationships.

6. Features of a good classification system:
1. Needs to use universally accepted names for organisms
2. Doesn’t use common names--they can be misleading and confusing.
Mountain lion, cougar, puma, panther-same animal
Starfish, jellyfish, seahorse, groundhog

7. Organisms should be placed in groups that share important traits and show evolutionary relationships
The plant and the worm share few common traits and are far apart in their evolutionary history.

8. The science of naming and grouping organisms is called systematics.
it’s goal is to organize things with meaning.

9. Early Classification Systems:
Aristotle-grouped animals by how they moved (fly, swim, walk).
Even though it had obvious problems, his system was used for nearly 2000 years.

10. 18th century scientists began to use Latin names but they were overly long (20 words or more)
For example, the English translation of the scientific name of a tree might be “Oak with deeply divided leaves that have no hairs on their undersides and no teeth around their edges.”

11. The Linnaean System Carl Linnaeus was a Swedish Botanist;
he developed the system for
giving things two names.
His method is called binomial nomenclature

12. Each organism gets a first and last name.
-the first name is the genus. It is a small group of very similar organisms.
-the second name is the species. These are all the same organism
Definition of a species:
members of the same species can interbreed and have fertile offspring.

13. Examples: All dogs are the same species because they can interbreed and have fertile offspring.

14. Horses and donkeys are not the same species because their offspring, a mule, is sterile.

15. Example: Acer rubrum-red maple Acer palmatum-palm maple

16. Example: Felis leo
Felis tigris

17. How to write a scientific name:
The genus name is always capitalized, species is always small. It must then be underlined or italicized to be set apart.
Names are in Latin so the meanings won’t change with use.

18. Examples: Ursus arctos horrible
“horrible artic bear” for the grizzly bear

19. Ursus maritimus Polar bear Ursus americanus Black bear

20. Some are named for a location:
Microtus pennsylvanicus
Sphiggurus mexicanus

21. Atlantic Puffin Fratercula arctica translates as “little brother of the Arctic”),

22. Some are named for people:
Beyonce: Scaptia beyonceae

23. Barack Obama: Caloplaca obamae

24. 7 Categories:
Kingdom
Phylum
Class
Order
Family
Genus
Species

26. Use a sentence to remember the order:
Kathy Kings
Puts Play
Cheese Chess
On On
Fresh Fine
Garden Grain
Salad Sand

27. Examples: Human Housecat animalia chordata mammalia primate homididae
Homo
sapien
Housecat
animalia
chordata
mammalia
carnivora
felididae
Felis
domesticus

28. Categories go from general to specific
Animal
Chordata
Mammalia
Carnivora
Ursidae
Ursus
artic horribilus

29. Modern Classification methods:
In the 1970s a new level was added. Kingdoms were grouped into domains.

30. Today the following are often looked at to classify new organisms:
1. homologous structures
2. embryos
3. fossils
4. biochemicals
a. DNA
b. RNA
c. Proteins like Cytochrome c (found in all living things)

31. Kingdoms: Linnaeus started with 2 kingdoms: plants and animals.
It became clear that not everything fit into those 2 kingdoms so more were added.

32. There are now 6 kingdoms:
1. Eubacteria—these are the most common bacteria. (“eu” means “true”) Bacteria are all prokaryotic and unicellular. They are the smallest cells that exist.

33. 2. Archaebacteria—this is the newest kingdom
2. Archaebacteria—this is the newest kingdom. These bacteria have different cell walls, lipids and ribosomes. They are all prokaryotic and unicellular. They like extreme places to live.

34. 3. Protista—all have large eukaryotic cells
3. Protista—all have large eukaryotic cells. They may be unicellular or multicellular. They may be autotrophic or heterotrophic. They don’t fit anywhere else.

35. 4. Fungi--eukaryotic, heterotrophic, with cell walls
4. Fungi--eukaryotic, heterotrophic, with cell walls. However the cell walls are different from plants.

36. 5. Plantae—all are eukaryotic, multicellular, have cell walls made of cellulose, and are autotrophic.

37. 6. Animalia—all are eukaryotic, multicellular, have no cell walls, and are heterotrophic.

38. How the kingdoms fit into domains:
Domain Bacteria – Kingdom Eubacteria
Domain Archaea – Kingdom Archaebacteria
Domain Eukarya – Kingdoms Protista, Fungi, Plantae, Animalia