1. Classifying Living Things
Taxonomy
Classifying Living Things
© Copyright 2015 – all rights reserved

2. Characteristics of ALL Living Things
Made of cells
Grow and develop
Acquire and use Energy
Reproduce
Respond to its Environment
All living things have five characteristics:
Made of cells
Some living things are made of one cell…unicellular (examples would be bacteria, archaea, and protozoa)
Other living things are multicelled…like humans, we are made of more than one cell
Grows and develops
All living things grow…meaning they get larger/increase their size (cell size or number of cells)
All living things develop, age, and die
All living things are different-they have cells that are special and have certain jobs
Acquires and uses Energy
All living things have a metabolism
And are either heterotrophic (feeds/gets energy from other things) or autorophic (feed themselves…like plants and algae!)
Reproduces (they can make more of themselves)
Asexual reproduction (can make more by themselves as a single organism)
Sexual reproduction (two similar organisms are needed to make more)
Responds to its Environment
Living things can move (either internally or externally)
Living things have the ability to respond to stimuli (sound, touch, pressure, temperature, color, light, chemicals, etc)
Living things can adapt
© Copyright 2015 – all rights reserved

3. What is ‘Taxonomy?’
Taxonomy is the science of naming living things and assigning them to groups (classification)
‘taxis’ is the Greek root that means ‘arrangement’
‘nomia’ is the Greek root for ‘distribution’
© Copyright 2015 – all rights reserved

4. Taxonomy Why is it important?
This classification system avoids confusion
Provides a single, universal name to every organism on earth
Helps us to understand how things are related
This classification system is important because
It avoids confusion…could you imagine if people in every country used their own language to talk about living things? That would mean 100s of names for a dolphin! With this system, when a scientist in Japan is talking about a dolphin with a scientist in France or America, they all know exactly what they are discussing and there would be no confusion!
This system assigns a single (actually they have two names-genus and species), universal name to every organism. Humans are homo sapiens and scientists in every country of the world uses the same term when discussing humans.
The system of classification, the taxonomy helps us to understand how living things are related to each other (such as humans are closely related to apes)
© Copyright 2015 – all rights reserved

5. Classification Systems What other classification systems do we use?
Dewey Decimal system
Grocery store
Periodic Table of Elements
Music Store
Other places where we use classification systems?
The Dewey decimal system is used in libraries to classify books. It helps us know where they books are so we can find them quicker!
Our grocery stores are organized to help us find items…produce (fruits and veggies), frozen, meats, canned goods, etc. And each section in the store is broken down into smaller sections, such as the frozen section keeps all the veggies together, breakfast foods in one area, frozen dinners in another area, etc
Periodic Table of elements for Chemistry
Sections in a music store (rock, country, jazz, blues, classical, etc)
© Copyright 2015 – all rights reserved

6. This organism has FIVE common names!
Mountain Lion
Cougar
Puma
Catamount
Florida Panther
In science,
they are all called the
Puma concolor
Many organisms also have ‘subspecies’ to further classify them, such as the Florida Panther is the Puma concolor coryi
© Copyright 2015 – all rights reserved

7. Taxonomy Binomial nomenclature is the system of scientific naming.
Binomial nomenclature (latin) is a system assigning ‘two names’ (genus and species)
The genus and species MUST be underlined or in italics
It was developed by Carolus Linnaeus in the 1750s. He was a Swedish botanist.
© Copyright 2015 – all rights reserved

8. Taxonomy of ‘Us’ Homo sapiens mean ‘wise man’
It is the scientific name (genus and species) for all human beings
Homo=genus
(Notice it is capitalized and underlined)
sapiens=species
(Notice it is underlined but NOT capitalized)
© Copyright 2015 – all rights reserved

9. Taxonomy of Human Beings
8 Taxa of living things
(taxon = group)
Domain = Eukarya
Kingdom = Animalia
Phylum = Chordata
Class = Mammalia
Order = Primate
Family = Hominidae
Genus = Homo
Species = sapien
The Eukarya domain is different from the Bacteria and Arachaea domains because it has membrane bound organelles, especially the nucleus, which contains genetic material
We are in the animal kingdom, which is different from plants and fungi.
The Chordata phylum means we are chordates…we have backbones, just like fish, reptiles, amphibians, and birds.
The Mammal class includes animals that give milk to their babies, have fur or hair, usually have live birth, etc
Primates include humans, monkeys, lemurs, etc. Primates have forward facing eyes (different than cows), dexterous (they have opposable thumbs, five fingers/toes on each hand/foot), collar bones (which allow greater mobility in the shoulder), and primates tend to have larger brains compared to body size of other animals.
Hominidae family includes chimpanzees, gorillas, and orangutans. Male hominids are usually larger than females and are the largest primates. Hominids have developed forearms, but the legs are longer than the arms. Hominids also don’t have a tail (unlike monkeys!). They have a unique structure of their teeth, with canines and broad incisors. One might suggest that hominids are the probably the most advanced ‘family’ in the world.
Homo have a larger brain, the face and jaws are reduced and smaller than austraopithecines. The Homo genus rely more on cultural adaptations for survival. The Homo genus have behavioral flexibility and the ability to adapt to a variety of circumstances.
The sapien species have a skeleton adapted to walking on two feet, globular cranial vault, supraorbital ridges that are small or absent and a chin on the lower jaw
© Copyright 2015 – all rights reserved

10. What are ‘domains’ and ‘species?’
Domain is the least specific and the largest group
There are three domains
Species are the most specific and contain ONLY one kind of organism
What is ‘species?’
Can breed/reproduce
Possess unique features
Similar DNA
Can breed/reproduce
they have viable, fertile offspring
Possess unique features
they are similar to others of the same species
Similar DNA to other members in the SAME species
© Copyright 2015 – all rights reserved

11. Cladograms Another system of Classification
Cladograms are a branching diagram system showing the cladistic relationship between different species
© Copyright 2015 – all rights reserved

12. Classification Today How do we decide how to classify something?
Structure
DNA
Linnaeaus’ system used physical characteristics to classify organisms
Today, scientists use DNA to see how organisms are related. Linnaeaus did not have technology to discover DNA.
© Copyright 2015 – all rights reserved

13. Image Credits
Slide 6:
“Florida Panther” courtesy of
“Mountain Lion” courtesy of predator /
Slide 7:
 ”Carolus Linnaeus” courtesy of
Slide 9:
“Linnaeaus Journal Page” courtesy of
“Taxonomy of Primates” courtesy of
Slide 11:
“Cladogram on fish” courtesy of
© Copyright 2015 – all rights reserved