Taxonomy

• Taxonomy


  The science of naming, describing and classifying organisms, discovery, and identification
• Taxonomy


  Arrangement of organisms into orderly groups based on their similarities
• Taxonomist


  Someone who names, defines, and classifies organisms
• Benefits of Taxonomy

  • Accurately & uniform names of organisms
  • Prevents misnomers (Jellyfish & Starfish)
  • To avoid repetition of names
• Carolous Linnaeus


  Swedish naturalist and explorer, who was the first to frame principles for defining natural genera and species of organisms and to create a uniform system for naming them
• Linnaeus 7 Levels of Classification/ 8 levels of classification (highest to lowest)

  • Domain
  • Kingdom
  • Phylum
  • Class
  • Order
  • Family
  • Genus
  • Species
• Kingdom Monera


  • Prokaryotes (i.e., without a nucleus) Unicellular and colonial, including the true bacteria (eubacteria) and cyanobacteria (blue-green algae) [~10,000 species]
• Kingdom Protist


  • Unicellular protozoans and unicellular and multicellular (macroscopic) algae with 9 + 2 cilia and flagella (called undulipodia[~250,000 species])
• Kingdom Fungi


  • Haploid and dikaryotic (binucleate) cells, multicellular, generally heterotrophic, without cilia and eukaryotic (9 + 2) flagella (undulipodia) [~100,000 species]
• Kingdom Plantae


  • Haplo-diploid life cycles, mostly autotrophic, retain embryo within female sex organ on parent plant [~250,000 species]
• Kingdom Animalia


  • Multicellular animals, without cell walls and without photosynthetic pigments, form diploid blastula [~1,000,000 species]
• Phyla


  • Chordata (with backbone)
  • Arthropoda (ex. Insects)
  • Mollusca (e.g. snails)
  • Platyhelminthes (e.g. tapeworms)
  • Nematoda (i.e. unsegmented worms)
  • Annelida (i.e. segmented worms)
  • Cnidaria and Ctenophora (e.g. jellyfish)
  • Echinodermata (e.g. starfish)
  • Porifera (e.g. sponges )

  
• Classes


  • Mammalia (mammals)
  • Reptilia (reptiles)
• Orders


  • Primates
  • Carnivora
• Families


  • Hominidae (human & apes)
• Genus


  • Homo
  • Canis
  • Felis
• Species


  • Sapiens
  • Domestica
  • Mindorensis
• Domains- highest level constitutes three domains of life


  • Archaea
  • Bacteria
  • Eukarya
• Why use scientific names

  Eliminates confusion between nationalities that may have different common names for organisms by assigning them a universal name that acts as a code
• The scientific name for coconut is Cocos nucifera.
• Binomial nomenclature


  A normal system of naming species of living things, with the genus and species
• The rules for binomial nomenclature are:

  1) The first word is the genus, always capitalized.

  2) The second word is the species, always lowercase.
• Three domains of life

  • Archaea
  • Bacteria
  • Eukarya
• Dichotomous key


  A tool that allows the user to determine the identity of items in the natural world, consisting of a series of choices that lead the user to the correct name of a given item
• Keys


  Consist of a series of choices that lead the user to the correct name of a given item.
• Dichotomous 


  means "divided into two parts"
• Genus


  refers to the relatively small group of organisms
• Species


  usually a Latin description of some important characteristics of the organisms.
• Five Kingdoms:

  • Kingdom Monera
  • Kingdom Protist
  • Kingdom Fungi
  • Kingdom Plantae
  • Kingdom Animalia