1. Classification/ Early Classification

2. How would you organize a Junk Drawer?
Your job: organize items given to you
Examine objects & sort into 3 groups
(you decide…be creative!)
Place each object into one of the groups based on how the objects features match the characteristics of the group

3. Challenge!!! Think outside the box… What things in our every-day lives are classified into groups? AND… How are they classified?

4. Classification At least 2.5 million kinds of organisms on Earth
Classification – the process of grouping living things based on their similarities
(and differences)
Biologists use classification to organize living things into groups so that the organisms are easier to study
Classification

5. How do we organize organisms (living things) in our lives?
Taxonomy – scientific study of how living things are classified Taxonomist – scientist who classifies living things
How do we organize organisms (living things) in our lives?

6. Early Classification
Aristotle – 350 B.C. – Greek scholar – grouped animals based on how they moved and where they lived, using careful observations.
***created 1st classification system
How would Aristotle have classified the following organisms into 3 groups based on how they move?
Bat, Fish, Ant, Sparrow, Shark, Snake,
Dolphin, Black Bear, Butterfly, Human

7. Early Classification Carolus Linnaeus - 1750’s – Swedish scientist –
developed binomial nomenclature, a two-part Latin name for each organism called a scientific name.

8. Scientific Name:
genus – first part of the scientific name – capitalized – a number of closely related species
species – second part of the scientific name – lower case – a group of similar organisms that can mate and produce fertile offspring.
Examples:
Homo sapiens (Humans)
Escherichia coli (E. coli)

9. More examples of scientific names
Genus (closely related)
species
(Fertile offspring)
Felis concolor
(Mountain Lion, Cougar, Puma)
Felis pardalis
(Ocelot, dwarf leopard)
Felis domesticus
(Domestic Cat)

10. Please add this to the bottom of your notes!
Charles Darwin (British Scientist)– developed the theory of evolution (species gradually change over time)
Contributed evolutionary history in modern classification

11. ***Modern System of Classification (what scientists use today)
7 Levels of Classification – organisms are grouped by their shared levels of characteristics
(Kingdom, Phylum, Class, Order, Family, Genus, Species)
…we’ll get into this on the next section of notes

12. Some recent discoveries of organisms from the Institute for Species Exploration:
species/top-10-new-species-photos htm