Post on 23-Feb-2016
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Taxonomy
Chapter 16
Classifying
Taxonomy: The science of classifying
Classify: to group ideas, information, or objects based on similarities.
Name places you been to that have classified things
Early History of Classification
Aristotle developed a system to classify living things. Thought all living things could be either Plant or
Animal kingdom
Kingdom: The first and largest category
His problem though…
Grouped them according to physical traits
Then used things like: lived, blood, reproduced, wing types
But there were too many exceptions Ex: Frogs
Another problem develops
Sometimes, an organism has a different name in each country it lived in
Or even in the same country
Examples:
A new system emerges… Scientific Naming
To counter that problem scientists gave organisms names that described them in great detail
Example: Spearmint plant Scientific name: Mentha floribus spicatis, foliis
ablongis serratis
Good thing the next guy came along…
Carl Linnaeus and Binomial Nomenclature
Carl Linnaeus: Swedish scientist who created a simpler, unique way to name organisms
Binomial nomenclature: gives a two-word name to every organism Binomial means “two names” Much like a first and last name
What’s in a name?
The first word of an organism’s name is the genus Genus: a group of different organisms that have
similar characteristics.
The second word is the species group Species: the smallest, most precise classification
category Organisms in the same species can mate an produce
fertile offspring
Soy
Carp
Example of how it works
Canis familaris: The domesticated dog
The first word(the genus) is always capitalized while the second word(the species) is always lowercased.
Both names are written in either italics or underlined
It uses Latin because when he developed it, Latin was used by educated people
Today, Latin is used internationally because a lot of languages are based on Latin roots
In this system no two organisms have the same name.
This way everyone can know the difference between a dog Canis familaris and a gray wolf, Canis lupus
Modern Classification
Linnaeus and Aristotle both developed their systems based on physical characteristics
Today, we can classify beyond that using DNA and cell structure.
They also study fossils, they examine and compare ancestors to existing organisms.
Phylogeny
From this new information, we create their phylogeny
Phylogeny: its evolutionary history or how it changed over time.
Phylogeny tells scientists who the ancestors of an organism were
Classification system used today separates organisms into six kingdoms
Animal Plant Fungi Protists Eubacteria Archaebacteria
Six Kingdoms
Groups within a Kingdom
Every organism is placed into a kingdomAfter that into a PhylumEach phylum is separated into ClassesClasses are separated into OrdersOrders are separated into FamiliesFamilies separated into GenusA genus separated into a Species
Kingdom
Phylum
Class
Order
Family
Genus
Species
Assignment: Design an Mnemonic Acronym
King KingdomPaul PhylumCried ClassOut OrderFor FamilyGood GenusSoup Species
Common Names and Scientific Names
Functions of Scientific Names
They help scientists avoid errors in communication
Organisms with similar evolutionary histories are classified together
Scientific names give descriptive information about the species
Scientific names allow information about organisms to be organized and found easily and efficiently
Dichotomous Keys Dichotomous Key: a detailed list of characteristics
used to identify organisms and included scientific names
Keys are arranged in steps with two descriptive statements at each step
You keep answering questions until you get to the scientific name of your organism
You must always start at the beginning of the key