1. Organising biodiversity
What is a species?
How do we name species?
What do we mean by classification?

2. Why classify?
need to identify pests exactly in order to know how to control them.
toxic reaction to a bite, need to know species for treatment
which food plants safe to eat
communication between people and scientists need effective and common classification to organise information

3. Classification
Classification is the grouping of organisms on the basis of features that they have in common.
Taxonomy is the naming of these groups scientifically.
Members of a species usually look very similar and can interbreed.
Hybrids result if two different species interbreed.
You don't always need the whole organism to be able to identify it and sometimes it relies on specimens to be examined at a microscopic level.
In order to identify an organism many tools are available to help if the organism is unknown. They include: field guides - keys - reference collections - databases.

4. Classification groupings Scientists classify organisms into a number of groups that form a hierarchy. The groups are known as taxa or taxonomic levels.
Domain
Kingdom
Phylum
Class
Order
Family
Genus
Species
Increasing similarity between organisms
Increasing number of species

5. Do Koalas Prefer Chocolate Or Fruit, Generally Speaking?
Drunken Kangaroos Punch Children On Family Game Shows
Can you come up with one?

6. Domains
More recent addition

7. Kingdoms Currently accepted 5 kingdoms Plantae Fungi Animalia Protista
Monera

8. Saprophytic: Receive nourishment from dead or decaying matter
Holozoic: ingestion and internal processing of liquids or solid food particles

9. Common names vs. binomial names
Common names are not accurate
the European black-billed ‘magpie’ and the Australian ‘magpie’ are unrelated birds
The binomial name tells us the Genus and the Species of an organism
Thus it allows us to not only see what an organism SPECIFICALLY is it also allows us to see what it is closely related to

10. Binomial system of naming
Carl von Linné (1707–1778)
known as Linnaeus
Binomial – two names - Latinised
Generic (genus) name (Capital first letter)
Species (specific) name (lower case first letter)
E.g. Humans scientific name is Homo sapiens, while a kangaroo's scientific name is Macropus rufus.
Must be written in italics (or underlined).

11. Classification is based on the characteristics of organisms.
Physical characteristics
What the organism looks like
Reproductive methods
Sexual reproduction or asexual reproduction or both
Lay eggs? Give birth to live young?
Molecular sequences
Using DNA sequences to classify organisms when morphological evidence is not clear
Bioinformatics combines mathematical modelling, computer science and biology to compare molecular sequences on a very large scale (this is quite recent).
Classification keys
Most of these are dichotomous, meaning that you chose between two options.

12. Apply your knowledge: Classy classifications worksheet Dichotomous key
Molecular sequencing of organisms