1. Classification of Living Things

2. What is classification?
Classification: putting things into orderly groups based on similar characteristics.

3. Ways we classify things
Supermarket aisles
Libraries
Classes
Teams/sports
Members of a family
Roads
Cities
Money
Living Things

4. What about all the living things on the planet…..
So how many different forms of life are there? Hundreds? Thousands? Millions?
It is very difficult to imagine how many species of plants, animals and other creatures there are on the planet.
Consider the swallowtail butterfly. It is just one of many butterflies, and butterflies are only one type of insect...

5. In the world today...
There are about 600 species of swallowtail butterfly But this is only one group of butterflies

6. There are about 16,000 species of butterfly But we haven't included the moths!
There are about 165,000 species of butterfly and moth But this is only one group of insects

7. There are about 1,000,000 species of known insects But insects are only one type of arthropod

8. There are about 1,075,000 species of arthropod But arthropods are only one type of animal

9. There are about 1,500,000 species of animal But animals are only one type of living thing

10. There are about 70,000 species of fungi
There are about 400,000 species of plant
And there are at least 140,000 species of 'protist'

11. But there are more
types of
living thing... Scientists cannot begin to imagine how many bacteria there are!

12. When you consider how many living things there on the planet, you can begin to understand the importance of classification.
Classification helps scientists organize the diversity of life on Earth.

13. Taxonomy: the science of describing, naming, and classifying organisms.
Taxonomists give a unique scientific name to
each species they know about whether it’s alive
today or extinct.
The scientific name comes from one of two
“dead” languages – Latin or ancient Greek.
Why use a dead language?

14. Consider this…

15. Devil Cat

16. Ghost Cat

17. Mountain Lion

18. Screaming Cat

19. Puma

20. Florida Panther

21. Cougar

22. Soooo……why use a scientific name?
There are at least 50 common names for
the animal shown on the previous 7 slides.
Common names vary according to region.
Soooo……why use a scientific name?

23. Biologists use the classification system to organize living things into groups so that the organisms are easier to study.
Classification- the process of grouping things based on their similarities.
Biologists aren't the only scientists who classify. Geologists classify, sometimes even we classify things
Taxonomy is useful because once an organism is classified a scientist knows a lot about that organism.

24. Binomial Nomenclature
Developed by Carolus Linnaeus
Two-name system
Genus and species named using Latin or Greek words

25. The modern system of classification has 8 levels:

26. Helpful way to remember the 8 levels
Dumb kids playing catch on freeways get squashed
Or…make up your own…
D K P C O F G S

27. Types of Domains Bacteria Archaea Eukarya Unicellular
Unicellular, live in extreme environments
Eukarya
Unicellular or multi-cellular
Protists, Fungi, Plants, and Animals

28. Domains and Kingdoms

29. Rules used to write scientific names
Homo sapiens
An organism’s genus is always written first; the organism’s species is always written second
The genus is Capitalized; the species is
written in lower case
Scientific names of organisms are always italicized or underlined