Taxonomy - The Science of Classifying

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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)

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