Taxonomy - The Science of Classifying Print Friendly and PDF

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Classification - organizing life forms into groups

Why classify? Common Names can be misleading

spider monkey sea monkey
gray wolf firefly
mud puppy horned toad
black bear jellyfish
ringworm crayfish
sea horse frogfish

Linneaus - devised the current system of classification, which uses the following schema (Domain was added later)

Domain - Kindgom - Phylum - Class - Order - Family - Genus - Species

(Dear King Philip Came Over For Great Soup)

taxonomy


Binomial Nomenclature - Two Name System

-written in italics (or underlined)
-1st word is Capitalized --Genus
-2nd word is lowercase ---species

Examples: Felis concolor, Ursus arctos, Homo sapiens, Panthera leo , Panthera tigris

The scientific name is always italicized or underlined. Genus is capitalized. Species is not. Scientific names can be abbreviated by using the capital letter of the genus and a period: Example. P. leo (lion)

Examine how these animals are organized into the different groups:

Human Cougar Tiger Pintail Duck
Kingdom Animalia Animalia Animalia Animalia
Phylum/Division Chordata Chordata Chordata Chordata
Class Mammalia Mammalia Mammalia Aves
Order Primate Carnivora Carnivora Anseriformes
Family Homindae Felidae Felidae Anatidae
Genus Homo Felis Panthera Anas
Species sapiens concolor tigris acuta

The Six Kingdoms and Domains

number of Cells energy cell type examples
archaebacteria unicellular some autotrophic, most chemotrophic prokaryote "extremophiles"
eubacteria unicellular autotrophic and heterotrophic prokaryote bacteria, E. coli
fungae most multicellular heterotrophic eukaryote mushrooms, yeast
plantae multicellular autotrophic eukaryote trees, grass
animalia multicellular heterotrophic eukaryote humans, insects, worms
protista most unicellular heterotrophic or autotrophic eukaryote ameba, paramecium, algae

Modern Classification System

Phylogeny - studies evolutionary relationships

Clade - a group the includes a single common ancestor
Cladogram - diagram that shows clades and how they are linked by shared traits

Derived character - a trait that arose in a common ancestor; all descendants share this trait

cladogram