80 likes | 96 Views
Classification of Life. Why do we need to classify l iving things?. Biologists group living things to make it easier to communicate information while studying them to understand their needs, characteristics, and behavior. How Do We Classify Living Things?.
E N D
Why do we need to classify living things? Biologists group living things to make it easier to communicate information while studying them to understand their needs, characteristics, and behavior.
How Do We Classify Living Things? • Biologists group living things based on similarities in appearance and behavior. • A biologist named Carolus Linnaeus started this naming system. He also chose to use Latin words (a language everyone could understand). • Living things are constantly being investigated, and sometimes we must change the grouping system. Linnaeus(1707-1778) Swedish scientist who laid the foundation for modern taxonomy
We call this naming system: Taxonomy (from Ancient Greek: taxis = arrangement, nomia = method… “method of arrangement”) Every known living organism on Earth is classified and named by a set of rules. The names are called scientific names, not common names. Common names are “dog” or or “cat.” Scientists call those animals by a set of several names like Canis familiarus. or just a dog… Source: http://www.biology4kids.com
The naming system uses categories which become more specific… Taxonomic categories Kingdom King Most general Phylum Philip Class Came Order Over Family For Genus Green Species Soup Most Specific
Here is an example of the scientific naming system… Taxonomic categories Kingdom King Most general Phylum Philip Class Came Order Over Family For Genus Green Species Soup Most Specific Please, just call me Bubba!
History of the Kingdom Classification System http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kingdom_(biology)
General Classification of Animals *Most of the time we can classify animals in this way. (There are exceptions.)