1. Exploring and Classifying Life
Life Science
Mrs. Morgan

2. Characteristics of Living Things
What traits do living things have?
Organism- any living thing
Vary in size
Found everywhere
Different behaviors and food needs
Similar traits that determine what it means to be alive

3. 1. Living things are organized into cells (cell- smallest unit of an organism that carries on the functions of life)
Unicellular- one cell
Multicellular- many
cells

4. 2. Living things respond (to their environment)
Stimulus- signal; causes some change in an organism Response- action; responds to the stimuli in and/or outside Homeostasis- ability to keep inside conditions the same regardless of external conditions

5. Living Things use Energy
Ingestion- to eat
Digestion- breaking down for body to use
Respiration- taking in O2 to use as energy
Excretion- removal of waste
Metabolism-sum total of ALL chemical activities in the body.

6. 4. Living Things Grow & Develop Life span- maximum length of time an organism can be expected to live Multicellular organism growth= increase in number of cells Unicellular organism growth= increase in the size of the cell

7. 5. Living Things Reproduce
Asexual reproduction-
requires only 1 parent
Sexual reproduction-
requires 2 parents

8. Classification of Living Things
Taxonomy- the study of grouping and naming of organisms
Carolus Linnaeus- a Swedish botanist that developed a 7-level (taxa) classification system based on similarities between organisms.
Demonstration: have everyone stand then repeat the following list, unless they contain the characteristics they must sit down.
Over five feet tall
Brown eyes
Female
Left handed
People wanted to organize their world so they began grouping, or classifying everything they saw.
Libraries group similar types of books together.
When you place similar items together, you classify them.
Organisms also are classified into groups.
Early classifications included grouping plants that were used in medicines.
Animals were often classified by human traits such as courageous—for lions—or wise—for owls.
More than 2,000 years ago, a Greek named Aristotle observed living things.
He decided that any organism could be classified as either a plant or an animal.
Then he broke these two groups into smaller groups.
Animal categories included hair or no hair, four legs or few legs, and blood or no blood. Things that swim, things that fly, things that chew their food or swallow their food whole
Carolus Linnaeus developed a new system of grouping organisms.
His classification system was based on looking for organisms with similar structures. For example, plants that had similar flower structure were grouped together.
Use a scientific name so scientists from different countries can talk about the same animal without confusion
Names were based on Latin or ancient Greek words w/ names that may have been 10 words or more…problems occurred b/c some organisms were described by their different characteristics…so something had to be done.

9. The Seven Levels of Classification
Kingdom –largest category organisms are placed into; 6
Phylum
Class
Order
Family
Genus –group of similar species
Species
King Phillip Came Over For Good Snacks
Organisms are placed into kingdoms based on various characteristics. There are 6 main kingdoms and every living thing fits into one of these six kingdoms
The smallest classification category is a species. Organisms that belong to the same species can mate and produce fertile offspring.

10. Eastern Chipmunk Example:
Kingdom – Animalia - animal Phylum - Chordata - has backbone Class – Mammalia - has backbone, nurses young Order – Rodentia - has backbone, nurses young, long, sharp
front teeth Family – Scuridae - has backbone, nurses young, long, sharp
front teeth, bushy tail Genus – Tamias - has backbone, nurses young, long, sharp front
teeth, bushy tail, climbs trees Species – striatus - has backbone, nurses young, long, sharp
front teeth, bushy tail, climbs trees, stripes

11. Binomial Nomenclature
Bi means two
Nomen means “name”
Binomial nomenclature- is a classification system using two names to identify an organism
Using common names can cause confusion. Samantha is visiting her friend Amanda that lives back east. Samantha asks Amanda if she would like a pop. Samantha has no idea what a pop is because back east they call it soda.
This is how it can be if scientists only use common names for organisms. Not everyone has the same name for organisms.
Sea lions- more closely related to seals than lions
Jelly fish are neither fish nor jelly.
Came up with Binomial Nomenclature. 2 word naming system used to name the various species.

12. Binomial nomenclature name for gray wolf is: Canis lupis
Canis lupus- is the
scientific name (binomial
nomenclature) for a gray
wolf
Canis- genus name
lupus- species name
The first word of the two-word name identifies the genus of the organism.
Genus- group of similar species
Other animals in the canis group include dogs and coyotes
Genus name ALWAYS capitalized
The second word might tell you something about the organism- what it looks like, where it is found, or who discovered it, etc.
Only gray wolves are lupus
Species name is ALWAYS lowercase
Both names are italized
Use scientific names to avoid mistakes; to show that organisms are related, to give descriptive information, to allow information to be organized easily
Binomial nomenclature name for gray wolf is: Canis lupis

13. Red Maple Acer rubrum Acer saccharum Genus – Acer maple
Species- rubrum
red
Species- saccharum
sugar
Acer saccharum
This tree is commonly named red maple. Scientific name is acer rubrum. Genus= acer rubrum is latin for red , which is the color of a red maple’s leaves in the fall.
The scientific name of another maple is acer saccharum= sugar. In the spring, the sap of this tree is sweet.

14. Dichotomous Key
Dichotomous Keys- a detailed list of identifying characteristics that includes scientific names
"Dichotomous" means "divided into two parts". Therefore, dichotomous keys always give two choices in each step.

15. 1. a. wings covered by an exoskeleton –
Go to step 2
b. wings freely observed –
Go to step 3
2. a. body has a round shape…...
ladybug
b. body has an elongated shape…..
grasshopper
3. a. wings point out from the side of
the body ……….
dragonfly
b. wings point to the posterior of the
body ……….
housefly

16. Quick Review What are the seven taxa or levels?
What is binomial nomenclature?
What is a dichotomous key and how many questions does it ask for each characteristic?
What is the 1st part of an animals scientific name?
What is the 2nd part of an animals scientific name?