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