04

• Taxa


  A taxon, regardless of rank, describes a certain set of organisms that have been grouped together on the basis of their similarities
• Taxonomic hierarchy


  A classification system proposed by Linnaeus based on ranks, starting with the highest level (domain) and going down to the lowest level (species)
• There are 8 major taxonomic ranks: Domain, Kingdom, Phylum, Class, Order, Family, Genus, Species
• Steps of classification


  1. Comparison and description

  2. Molecular evidence analysis

  3. Naming

  4. Classification
• Binomial nomenclature


  A system that uses two names to refer to a species - the genus name and the specific epithet
• Binomial name


  • Genus name
  • Specific epithet
• When written digitally, binomial names must be italicized. When handwritten, they must be underlined (but not the space)
• Only the first letter of the genus name is capitalized
• Authority


  The author of the binomial name, included on first mention in publications
• Conventions for naming organisms

  • ICZN (for animals)
  • ICN (for plants)
• Binomial names are usually derived from Latin, a dead language with unchanging definitions
• Organisms within the same genus


  Are closely related evolutionarily
• Genus names cannot be shared even across kingdoms
• The uniformity of names used is an advantage of using scientific names
• The recommended language for use in scientific names is Latin, not English
• Features and functions of the Linnaean classification system

  • Uniqueness
  • Uniformity
  • Hierarchy and ranks
  • Binomial nomenclature
  • Taxa
  • Organization
• Referring to organisms by their binomial names prevents confusion due to local or common names
• Carl Linnaeus is known as the father of taxonomy and had many contributions still relevant today