Classification of Life

1. Classification of Life

2. Classifying Organisms • Classification: is the process of grouping things based on their similarities. • Non living things can be classified based up external features like hard vs. soft, round vs. triangular, or big vs. small. • Example: You could classify sports equipment based on it’s external features

3. It’s Your Turn-Classify This • Now it’s your turn try classifying the following items. Remember you can group them together based on a variety of physical characteristics. • Here’s your items: SCOTCH TAPE, PENCILS, RUBBER BANDS, STAMPS, MARKERS, ERASERS, RULERS, ENVELOPES, PAPER CLIPS, and PAPER. • Be Prepared to Share your Answer!!!

4. How did you classify things? • How did you classify things? • What was your criteria or external features you based your classification on? • Could you have picked a different characteristic and classified things differently?

5. Taxonomy • Taxonomy is the scientific study of how Living Things are classified. • There are 1.7 million known species of plants, animals, bacteria, etc. • There is constantly new organisms being discovered and it’s important for biologists to have all living things organized. • New Species Discovered Last Year • Top 10 Weird Species Recently Discovered • 2012 NEW SPECIES DISCOVERED VIDEO • GIANT RAT DISCOVERED

6. Classification is Important • Classification is important because… • 1. It helps identify unknown organisms • 2. It helps us to realize what types of organisms are surviving and why they are surviving. • 3. It helps us organize information we learn about new organisms.

7. Why is Classification Important? • Imagine you walk into a library and ask for a book on “Whales” and the librarian says I know I have a book on whales its somewhere in here but I’m not sure where. • If you wanted to find your book on “Whales” you would have to look through hundreds and thousands of books to find the book you want. This would be a giant waste of time. • Classification systems are important because they organize our knowledge for us. • When things get sorted into groups it makes them easier to understand and it makes it easier to see the relationships between them.

8. Carolus Linnaeus Classification System • Carl Linnaeus was a Swedish scientist in the 1750’s. (notice the cool wig he must have been the talk of the town) • He developed a classification system that we still use parts of today

9. Carl Linnaeus Classification System • Linnaeus developed a naming system called binomial nomenclature where each organism is given a two part name. • The first part of an organisms name is its genus. • A genus is a classification grouping that contains similar or closely related organisms.

10. Carl Linnaeus Classification System • The second part of the naming system is the species. • A species is a group of similar organisms that can mate and produce fertile offspring in nature • What is the genus and species name for human beings? • Homo sapien • Notice the Genus is capitalized and the species is not. • When you go to the zoo they will often times have the genus and species names listed. • Classification Video

11. 4 Organisms • I have 4 Organisms and I know their genus and species names. Of the following organisms which are most closely related? • 1. Canis lupus • 2. Megapteranovaeangliae • 3. Ailurusfulgens • 4. Canisrufus

12. 4 Organisms • 1. Canis lupus (Grey Wolf) • 2. Megapteranovaeangliae (Humpback Whale) • 3. Ailurusfulgens (Red Panda) • 4. Canisrufus (Red Wolf)

13. Classification Today • Modern classification has changed because often times in addition to classifying organisms on external characteristics we use genetic similarities. (If they have similar DNA)

14. Classification Today • Classification today uses 7 levels to classify organisms. • For example how many people in this room live in Utah? • How many people have ever left the state of Utah? • How many people have ever lived somewhere besides Utah? • How many people have lived in a different country? • For each question your larger classification group gets smaller and breaks down into sub-groups.

15. Seven Levels of Classification • 1. Kingdom • 2. Phylum • 3. Class • 4. Order • 5. Family • 6. Genus • 7. Species • King Phillip Came Over From Germany Swimming • Kings Play Chess On Fine Grain Sand • Any time you use Wikipedia to research an organism it has their classification groups on there • Koala Wikipedia Search

16. Classification Key • Classification Key is a series of paired statements that describe the physical characteristics of an organism. (This is also known as a Dichotomous Key or Taxonomic Key) • Taxonomic Keys helps you identify the organisms you are looking at. • Have you ever went hiking and wondered what the name of the trees, flowers, or insects around you are? • Money Taxonomy Key • Have you ever played the 20 Questions Game? It uses the same principle in sorting similar characteristics until it knows what you are thinking

17. The 6 Kingdoms: To Be Continued……. • The Six Kingdoms that we divide life up into are: Archaebacteria, Eubacteria, Protists, Fungi, Plants, and Animals. • Some people now divide the kingdoms into 5 where they have combined Archaebacteria and Eubacteria into a Kingdom called Monera