Taxonomy

• Classification is about categorizing organisms as animals, plants, protists, or fungi
• Taxonomy includes the naming and classification of species, with credit to Carl Linnaeus for starting a formal classification
• Domains categorize all life into Bacteria, Archaea, and Eukarya
• Characteristics of domain Bacteria

  • Prokaryotes with various roles like causing sickness, aiding digestion, decomposing, and fixing nitrogen
• Characteristics of domain Archaea

  • Prokaryotes with major DNA and structure differences, many extremophiles like salt lovers, methanogens, and thermophiles
• Characteristics of domain Eukarya

  • Eukaryotes with common characteristics like having a nucleus
• Archaea and Bacteria domains are separate due to major DNA and structure differences
• Eukarya is the third domain with characteristics common for eukaryotes
• Kingdoms' organization is often changing and not universally agreed upon
• 5 Kingdom system

  • Protista
  • Fungi
  • Plantae
  • Animalia
  • Monera
• 6 Kingdom system

  • Protista
  • Fungi
  • Plantae
  • Animalia
  • Archaebacteria
  • Eubacteria
• Protista is extremely diverse with "animal-like," "plant-like," and "fungi-like" characteristics
• Protista includes autotroph protists (making their own food) and heterotroph protists (consume other things for energy)
• Most protists are unicellular but can be multicellular with or without cell walls made of cellulose
• Fungi are heterotrophs, usually multicellular, with cell walls made of chitin
• Plants (Plantae) are autotrophs, multicellular, with cell walls of cellulose
• Animals (Animalia) are mostly multicellular and heterotrophic
• Species name is the most specific level in the hierarchy
• Binomial nomenclature uses Latin or Greek roots for scientific names, with the first name as the genus and the second as the specific epithet
• Scientific names provide a specific and recognized way to name species regardless of location