The taxonomic system was devised by Carolus Linnaeus
1707-1778
Taxonomic system
A hierarchical system where organisms are grouped into ever more inclusive categories from species up to kingdom
A category higher than a kingdom, called domain, was proposed by Carl Woese
1981
The scientific name of a species is a "binomial name" which includes two parts: the genus and the species epithet
Nomenclature
The practice of assigning scientific names
Binomial
Comes from the words "bi" meaning "two" and "nomen" meaning "name"
Genus
The first letter is always capitalized (e.g. Canis)
Species epithet
Not capitalized (e.g. familiaris)
Species name
Can be in bold letters, underlined, or italicized
Each domain contains related kingdoms and each kingdom consists of related phyla and so on
Each organism has only a single scientific name
At present, different nomenclature codes govern the naming of species for different groups like Algae, Fungi, Plants, Animals, Bacteria, Cultivated Plants, and Viruses
Some major rules in nomenclature include names written in Latin, genus capitalized, species epithet in lower case, words italicized, and each separate word underlined
The first name to be validly and effectively published gets the priority in nomenclature
All taxa must have an author when described
Dichotomous key
A tool that helps identify unknown organisms to some taxonomic level by offering two choices for each step
