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Classification of Living Things
What is classification?
Classification: putting things into orderly groups based on
similar characteristics.
Ways we classify things
Supermarket aislesLibrariesClassesTeams/sportsMembers of a familyRoadsCitiesMoneyLiving Things
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...
In the world today... There are about 600 species of swallowtail
butterflyBut this is only one group of butterflies
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
There are about 1,000,000 species of known insects But insects are only one type of arthropod
There are about
1,075,000 species of arthropod
But arthropods are only one
type of animal
There are about 1,500,000 species of animal But animals are only one type of living thing
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'
But there are more types of
living thing...
Scientists cannot
begin to imagine
how many bacteria
there are!
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.
Why use a dead language?
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.
Consider this…
Devil Cat
Ghost Cat
Mountain Lion
Screaming Cat
Puma
Florida Panther
Cougar
•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?
Taxonomy is useful because once an organism is classified a scientist
knows a lot about that organism.
Biologists use the classification system to organize living things into groups so that the organisms
are easier to study.
Biologists aren't the only scientists who classify. Geologists classify, sometimes even we classify things
Classification- the process of grouping things based on their
similarities.
Binomial Nomenclature
Developed by Carolus Linnaeus
Two-name system
Genus and species named using Latin or Greek words
The modern system of
classification has 8 levels:
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
Types of DomainsBacteria
Unicellular
ArchaeaUnicellular, live in extreme environments
EukaryaUnicellular or multi-cellularProtists, Fungi, Plants, and Animals
Domains and Kingdoms
Rules used to write scientific names
Homo sapiensAn 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