Classification of Life on Earth

With millions of species alive on this planet, how would one even begin to

organize them??

Aristotle was the first person known to classify (organize) living things

scientifically. In his system he divided everything into

two categories: Plants and Animals

Carolus Linnaeus

200 years after Aristotle, Linnaeus

came up with a different classification

scheme. His idea was to group plants and animals based on

similarities in their structures.

Linnaeus developed what is known as the “Classification Hierarchy”

The Classification Hierarchy is: a

system used to organize the many different organisms found on Earth

into groups

Lets watch a short clip about Linnaeus

In this system, groups that have the largest number of different organisms are called

KINGDOMS

The Kingdom level is then broken down into 6 smaller levels. Each level contains

fewer types of organisms than the level before. The

SPECIES level includes only one type of organism.

An easy way to remember:

KING PHILLIP CAME OVER FOR GOOD SHOES, SPEGHETTI

Each individual organism is classified using this system:

Organisms are called by their “ Scientific Name”

This is a combination of the Genus and

species. The genus is always capitalized and the species is written in

italics and lower case

For example: Humans = Homo sapiens Dogs = Canis lupis

Polar bear = Ursus maritimus

Linnaeus and later scientists have done all the work: All we have to do is use a Dichotomous Key to

find out the identity of an organism:

Dichotomous key: A system used for identifying things that is made up of a series of paired

descriptions to choose between

The best way to learn how to use a dichotomous key is to jump right in and practice… So let’s TRY…

Planet Pamishan Creatures- We will use a dichotomous key to identify all 20 creatures..

Don’t freak out.. We will do one at a time!

We will now look through the Key and follow the directions until we identify this Pamishan

creature…

We will now look through the Key and follow the directions until we identify this Pamishan

creature…

We will now look through the Key and follow the directions until we identify this Pamishan

creature…

We will now look through the Key and follow the directions until we identify this Pamishan

creature…

We will now look through the Key and follow the directions until we identify this Pamishan

creature…

This creature’s name is Narrowus portus

Ok, now we have done one together - identify the others on your own…