Taxonomic Classification

• Taxonomy

  • science of describing, naming, and classifying organisms
  • known as the system of scientific classification
• Biological Classification

  • arrangement of organisms into groups and subgroups on the basis of meaningful similarities and differences
  • where taxonomic levels are arranged in hierarchical order (taxonomic hierarchy)
  • from least specific to the most specific
• Aristotle

  • was the first to classify organisms as either plants or animals
  • classified animals based on how they moved
  • many organisms did not fit into his system of grouping
• Carolus Linnaeus

  • father of taxonomy
  • came up with a way of categorizing living things based on their shared characteristics
  • developed a system of grouping organisms into hierarchical categories
  • devised a two-part naming system: "binomial nomenclature"
• Domain, Kingdom, Phylum, Class, Order, Family, Genus, Species

  Enumerate all taxonomic hierarchies in order
• Domain

  largest category into which organisms are classified
• Kingdom

  taxonomic rank after domain
• Phylum

  refers to group of related classes
• Class

  orders which share few characteristics
• Order

  families which show less similarities among them
• Family

  genus which share some similarities
• Genus

  species which have similar traits but differ from the species of another genus
• Species

  shows the high level of similarities
• Panda

  Ailuropoda melanoleuca
• American Black Bear

  Ursus americanus
• Red Fox

  Vulpes vulpes
• Brown Bear

  Ursus arctos
• Dog

  Canis lupus familiaris

  • Spanish: perro
  • French: chien
  • Chinese: kuo
• Tiger

  Panthera tigris
• Lion

  Panthera leo
• Binomial Nomenclature

  • a two-word naming system for organism
  • often in a Latinized form
  • comprised of the generic name and the specific name
• Rules for writing scientific names

  1.) The first letter of the genus is always capitalized.

  2.) The first letter of the species is never capitalized.

  3.) Both names must be underlined or italicized.