Classification of Life

• taxa


  living things that are categorized into groups
• taxonomy

  the classification of living things that shares similar properties or characteristics
• Carolus Linnaeus 


  he is a Swedish botanist in 18th century that developed taxonomy
• Taxonomic Rank from general to specific: domain, kingdom, phylum, class, order, family, genus, species
• Domain


  the broadest category of biological taxonomy
• The three domains that exist: Archaea, Bacteria, Eukarya
• Archaea and Bacteria


  they are both prokaryotic
• Prokaryotic


  single-celled organisms without a nucleus
• Eukarya


  organisms that are unicellular or multicellular with cells that have a nucleus and membrane-bound organelles
• Kingdom


  before domain was introduced, it was the highest taxonomic rank
• the six kingdoms: Protista, Eubacteria, Archaebacteria, Fungi, Plantae, Animalia
• Monera


  since a kingdom cannot have organisms of different domains, this kingdom is no longer valid
• Eubacteria


  since kingdom Monera is no longer valid, this kingdom belongs to domain Bacteria
• Archaebacteria


  since kingdom Monera is no longer valid, this is covered by the domain Archaea
• Domain Eukarya is composed of four kingdoms: protists, fungi, plants, animals
• phyla


  plural form of Phylum
• Phylum


  more specific than Kingdom, less specific than class
• There are 35 phyla in the kingdom of Animalia
• There are 108 different classes in the kingdom of animalia
• kingdom plantae is divided into five major groups: thallophyta, bryophyta, pteridophyta, gymnosperms, angiosperms
• Order


  it is more specific than class
• There are between 19-26 orders of mammalia
• There are 12 total families in the order Carnivora
• genus and species


  these are the two lowest categories that is used to give an organisms scientific name using binomial nomenclature
• the species is referred first by the genus, then the species
• Scientific names are always italicized
• Phylogeny


  the study of evolutionary relationships that allows organisms to be classified according to their common ancestors
• cladistic analysis


  it uses cladograms to examine new characteristics, which arise in a lineage
• derived characteristics


  new characteristics
• lineage


  common ancestor, tracing of descent
• In the phylogenetic hypothesis, major clades of eukaryotes are divided into four supergroups
• Formerly, all the eukaryotes that are called Protists were assigned in a single kingdom, Protista
• the four major clades of eukaryotes: Excavata, SAR clade, Archaeplastida, Unikonta