1. Classification of Animals

2. Aristotle Greek philosopher to first classify organism
Based on structural similarities
Divided into two groups
Plants & Animals
Animals were classified further based on movement
Move through air
Move through water
Move on land

3. Linnaeus Produced an extensive system of classification
Used morphology (compare organisms form)
Divided the animal kingdom into species
Grouped species into genera
Genera into orders
Orders into classes
System now includes 7 ranks (aka taxa)
Kingdom, phylum, class, order, family, genus & species

6. Classification
Binomial nomenclature
Linnaeus’s system for naming species
Each species has a Latinized name composed of two words
Written in italics
1st word is the genus name
2nd word is the species epithet
Latin at one time was the language of scholars.
Today it is used because it avoids having to translate scientific names into the various different languages where different words have different meanings.
Universal system of naming allows us to avoid the confusion associated with common names, and tells us something about evolutionary relationships.

7. Examples Homo sapiens - Humans Canis familaris - dog
Canis lupus - wolf
Canis latrans - coyote

8. Kingdom………….. Animalia
Phylum……….…….Chordata (Members of this phylum have a notochord during their early development. A notochord is a rodlike skeletal structure. It disappears or changes as the animal grows.)
Class…………….....Mammalia (Members of this class have 3 middle ear bones, have hair, and produce milk.)
Order……………....Carnivora (Members of this order have teeth that could eat meat.)
Family…………..….Canidae (Members of this family share body characteristics such as the shape of the skull and the number of teeth.)
Genus………….….Canis (Members of this genus are dogs including wolves and foxes)
Species……….…...familiarus (This is the domestic dog)

10. Dichotomous Key
A dichotomous key is a tool that allows the user to determine the identity of items in the natural world, such as trees, wildflowers, mammals, reptiles, rocks, and fish.
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”.
dichotomous keys always give two choices in each step.