Why classify organisms?

Biology A

Student Goals Explain HOW and

WHY organisms are classified into Kingdoms through species.

Hierarchical Classification Taxonomic

categories Kingdom Phylum Class Order Family Genus Species

Hierarchical Classification Classification System

in Biology goes from biggest category to smallest category.

Each bigger category can hold many smaller ones. i.e., One Kingdom can

hold many phyla, one phyla can hold many classes

What is a Mnemonic Device

A Mnemonic Device is a strategy for remembering things.

Typically this involves using a little phrase where the first letters stand for the things you’re trying to remember in order.

Because a sentence or phrase makes sense, it’s easier to remember new or non-related things.

What is a strategy for remembering the Hierarchical Classification order?

What is a Seven-word phrase to remember this order?Kingdom

Phylum

Class

Order

Family

Genus

Species

Mnemonic Device: Examples King Phillip Came

Over For Green Soup

Kings Play Chess On Fine Grained Sand

Kindly Put Candy Out For Good Students

You develop a mnemonic device!

KingdomPhylumClassOrderFamilyGenusSpecies

Founder: Linnaeus Carolus Linnaeus

invented a binomial system of classification for all living things in the 1750’s

Classification system using 7 taxons or categories.

Linnaeus: original

Classification is in Latin Why do we use Latin

scientific names in biology? Latin used to be the

language of science. Latin is a dead

language; it doesn’t change.

They are useful to avoid confusion.

Scientific names: the Latin name of a plant or animal Common name

Dog Cat Human Red maple Corn

Scientific name Canis familiaris Felis catus Homo sapiens Acer rubrum Zea mays

Binomial nomenclature rules Genus

Noun, Capitalized, Underlined or Italicized

Example: Ursus

Species Descriptive, Lower

Case, Underlined or Italicized

Example: arctos

Ursus arctos

Ursus arctos (Brown Bear)

GENUS: The first part of the name. Families are divided

into groups of closely related organisms.

Organisms in the same genus are related to each other, but they may look very different, and be different species.

Plural of Genus= Genera

Brown bear- Ursus arctos

Sun bear- Helarctos malayanus

Giant panda- Ailuropoda melanoleuca

TH

REE D

IFFER

EN

T

GEN

ER

A

Specific Name = SPECIES NAME The second part of the scientific name. NOT

capitalized. Each genus is subdivided into populations of

organisms that breed (mate together) called species. All members of one species are more closely related

to each other than they are to other members of the same genus.

All members of one species tend to look similar, but they are not genetically identical.

(There is some variation in genes within each species)

Members of a species mate with each other and produce offspring that will look like them.

Those offspring can reproduce the species too.

Taxonomic Classification of Man

Kingdom: Animalia Phylum: Chordata Subphylum: Craniata Class: Mammalia Order: Primates Family: Hominidae Genus: Homo Species: sapiens

Homo sapien

Quiz- Question #1

What two parts make up the scientific name?

Answer: Genus and Species

Chicago Botanical Gardens: Bronze sculpture of Carolus Linnaeus created in 1982 by Robert Berks (American b. 1922)

Quiz- Question #2

What are the 7 categories that Linnaeus developed?

(what’s your mnemonic device?)

Answer: Kingdom, Phylum, Class, order, family, genus, species.

Quiz- Question #3

What is one reason why we classify organisms?

Answer: To give order to the organisms, provide a universal way to study organisms, it helps scientists understand organisms better.