1. CLASSIFICATION OF LIVING THINGS

2. WARM UP (15 minutes)
Line up around the room. You need to place yourself in order of your birthdays, but you cannot speak to one another.
Class is organized into groups according to birthday. How else could the class have been divided into groups?
Why might you want to group or classify objects?

3. Who Needs a Classification System?
How is your life organized?
When you go to the grocery store, how do know how to find the milk?
When you go to the clothing store, how do you know where to look for your favorite brand?
Think about Halloween candy… On Halloween night, after returning from trick or treating, what do you and your friends do? Do you poor our your candy on the floor and separate the candy into piles based on how the candy items are the same, and how they are different? Chocolate goes in 1 pile, smartees into another, etc. Then do you further separate the chocolates into Twix, Snickers, etc? Scientists do the same thing with organizing organisms.

4. Why do Scientists Classify?
Did you know that there are almost 2 million kinds of organisms on Earth?
How could we possibly keep them all straight or study them without some form of organization?

5. What is does the word classification mean?
Classification means the act of grouping living things by using a set of rules and similarities.
The “SCIENCE” of classification is called taxonomy. Taxonomy is the field of biology that study how living things are classified.

6. Who first developed a system to classify organisms?
As early as 350 B.C., the Greek Philosopher
Aristotle created guidelines for grouping
living things. Aristotle grouped organisms
based on four characteristics:
Body parts
Life histories
Activities
Character

7. The Modern Classification System
The modern classification system was
developed by the Swedish scientist, Carolus
Linnaeus, in the mid 1700’s. His system was based upon classifying organisms according to the organism’s physical and structural similarities. Some characteristics
he used to classify organisms were outside
appearance, internal organs, and how body
systems worked. Modern scientists are still using most of Linnaeus’s classification system.

8. Linneaus’ System of Scientific Names
Binomial Nomenclature is a two word classification naming system developed by Linneaus.
Each species of a living thing is given a DOUBLE NAME
EX: Just like your first and last name
First Name (Genus)
Tells which group of similar species the living thing belongs to. Genus is ALWAYS capitalized.
Second Name (Species)
Tells the name of the one particular species in that genus. Species is NEVER capitalized.

9. How Living Things Are Classified?
Organisms are ranked in a “Taxa” according to their characteristics.
Taxa is a further broken-down level of classification found within each kingdom according to similarities. The broader the Taxa the more general its characteristics & the more species it contains.

10. How Are Living Things Classified?
Broadest Level
There are 7 levels in the classification system of organisms
As one goes from the Kingdom to the Species (DOWNWARD)…An increase in the similarity between organisms occur
There are fewer numbers of different kinds of organisms
Most Specific

11. How Are Living Things Classified?
Kingdom: The highest level
Phylum: A subdivision of a kingdom
Class: Each phylum is divided into classes
Order: Each class is divided into orders
Family: Each order is divided into families
Genus: Each family is divided into genera
Species: Lowest level (represents a single type of organism)

12. CLASSIFICATION OF CARS
KINGDOM
Mechanical Transportation
PHYLUM
Automobile
CLASS
SUV
ORDER
Ford
FAMILY
Explorer
GENUS
Eddie Bauer
SPECIES
All Wheel Drive

13. How Are Living Things Classified?
Homework: Write an original catch phrase for the categories of classification so that each word in the phrase begins with the letter of the category in their correct order from largest to smallest
Example: Kids Play Cards On Fat Green Stools
Species
Phyllum
Order
Family
Kingdom
Class
Genus

14. The Classification Game!!
In the following few slides, you will find
14 different organisms, each of them labeled with a letter. In your groups, write down two main classification (example red/green). Then place the corresponding letters under
the correct classification.

15. For Example These organisms have been classified by their color. Red
Green

16. ARE
YOU
READY

18. One Possible Solution
Animals
Plants
????

19. Did You Have Problems??
There were actually several different ways to go
about classifying these 14 organisms. You might
have done color, shape, size, number of legs… the
possibilities are endless. You might have encountered one or two that really did not fit into either of your two classifications, what should you do when this happens? Make a new classification of course! And this is what scientist have done as well through the years.

20. The 5 KINGDOMS of Classification
A Kingdom is the largest group in the Classification system. It encompasses all the related species.

21. The 5 KINGDOMS of Classification
In all, there are 5 Kingdoms of Life…
Monera
Protista
Fungi
Plantae
Animalia

22. The 5 Kingdoms of Classification
The Kingdom, Monera consists of all Bacteria.
Examples of Bacteria include:
Cyan bacteria,
Staphylococcus aureus
Escherichia coli.
This picture is of E. coli

23. The 5 Kingdoms of Classification
The Kingdom, Protista
consists of simple
eukaryotes (multi-cellular
organisms).
Examples of Protista
include:
majority of molds such
as Saprolegnia (Water mold)
Dictyostelium diccoideum (Slime Mold).

24. The 5 Kingdoms of Classification
The Kingdom, Fungi consists of fungus & yeasts members. These break down organic materials to obtain food.
Examples of different types of fungus include:
Saccharomyces cerevisiae (Yeast)
Amanita muscaria (Fly Agaric).

25. The 5 Kingdoms of Classification
The Kingdom, Plantae houses all the plant members.
Examples of plants include:
Flowers
Corn
Moss
Ferns
Trees

26. The 5 Kingdoms of Classification
The last Kingdom, Animalia consists of Humans and ALL animals.
Examples of Animalia include:
Insects
Mammals
Reptiles
Birds
Amphibians.

27. Using the Classification System
Field guides help identify organisms.
-they highlight differences between similar organisms (like trees)
Taxonomic Key / Dichotomous Key) is a paired statements that describe the physical characteristics of different organisms

28. Taxonomic Key A B C D E F G H
Norns belong to the genus Norno and can be divided into eight species that are generally located in specific regions of the world. Use the dichotomos key to identify the norns below. A B C
Has pointed ears go to 3
1’ Has rounded ears go to 22.
Has no tail Kentuckyus
2’ Has tail Dakotus
Ears point upward go to 5
3’ Ears point downward go to 4
Engages in waving behavior Dallus
4’ Has hairy tufts on ears Californius
Engages in waving behavior WalaWala
5’ Does not engage in waving behavior go to 6
Has hair on head Beverlus
6’ Has no hair on head (may have ear tufts) go to 7
Has a tail Yorkio
7’ Has no tail, aggressive Rajus D E F G H

29. REVIEW
Classification means the act of grouping living things by using a set of rules and similarities.
Taxonomy is the field of biology that study how living things are classified.
The modern classification system was developed by Carolus Linnaeus. His system is based upon classifying organisms according to physical and structural similarities.
Binomial Nomenclature is a two word classification naming system. Each species of a living this is give a double name. First name (Genus) is ALWAYS capitalized. The second name (Species) is NEVER capitalized.
Organisms are ranked in a “Taxa” according to their characteristics. Taxa is a further broken-down level of classification found within each kingdom according to similarities. The broader the Taxa the more general its characteristics & the more species it contains.

30. REVIEW (Cont’d) There are 7 levels in the classification system
Broadest Level
There are
7 levels
in the
classification
system
Most Specific

31. REVIEW (Cont’d) The 5 Kingdoms Monera – all bacteria
Protista – all simple eukaryotes (multi-cellular organisms, i.e. molds)
Fungi – all fungus and yeasts (i.e. mushrooms)
Plantae – all plants
Animalia – all animals, reptiles, insects, birds
Taxonomic Key / Dichotomous Key) is a paired statements that describe the physical characteristics of different organisms