Classification of Living Things
What is classification?
Classification: putting things
into orderly groups based on
similar characteristics.
Ways we classify things
 Supermarket aisles
 Libraries
 Classes
 Teams/sports
 Members of a family
 Roads
 Cities
 Money
 Living Things
What about all the living things on
the planet…..
 So how many different forms of life are there?
Hundreds? Thousands? Millions?
 It is very difficult to imagine how many species of plants,
animals and other creatures there are on the planet.
 Consider the swallowtail butterfly. It is just one of many
butterflies, and butterflies are only one type of insect...
 In the world today...
 There are about 600 species of swallowtail butterfly
But this is only one group of butterflies
There are about 16,000 species of
butterfly
But we haven't included the moths!
There are about 165,000 species of butterfly and moth
But this is only one group of insects
There are about 1,000,000 species of known insects
But insects are only one type of arthropod
There are about
1,075,000 species of
arthropod
But arthropods are
only one type of
animal
There are about 1,500,000 species of animal
But animals are only one type of living thing
 There are about
70,000 species of
fungi
 There are about
400,000 species of
plant
 And there are at
least 140,000
species of 'protist'
But there are
more
types of
living thing...
Scientists
cannot begin
to imagine
how many
bacteria there
are!
When you consider how many living things there on the planet,
you can begin to understand the importance of classification.
Classification helps scientists organize the diversity of life on Earth.
Taxonomy: the science of describing, naming,
and classifying organisms.
•Taxonomists give a unique scientific name to
each species they know about whether it’s alive
today or extinct.
• The scientific name comes from one of two
“dead” languages – Latin or ancient Greek.
Why use a dead language?
Consider this…
Devil Cat
Ghost Cat
Mountain Lion
Screaming Cat
Puma
Florida Panther
Cougar
•There are at least 50 common names for
the animal shown on the previous 7 slides.
•Common names vary according to region.
Soooo……why use a scientific name?
Biologists use the classification
system to organize living things
into groups so that the organisms
are easier to study.
Classification- the process of
grouping things based on their
similarities.
Biologists aren't the only scientists
who classify. Geologists classify,
sometimes even we classify things
Taxonomy is useful because once
an organism is classified a scientist
knows a lot about that organism.
Binomial Nomenclature
Domain
Eubacteria
 Developed by Carolus
Linnaeus
 Two-name system
 Genus and species
named using Latin or
Greek words
The modern
system of
classification
has 8 levels:
Helpful way to remember the 8 levels
 Dumb kids playing catch on freeways get squashed
 Or…make up your own…
DKPCO FGS
Rules used to write scientific names
Homo sapiens
 An organism’s genus is always written first;
the organism’s species is always written
second
 The genus is Capitalized; the species is
written in lower case
 Scientific names of organisms are always
italicized or underlined
Living Things
Domain
Eubacteria
Kingdom
Eubacteria
Domain
Archaebacteria
Kingdom
Archaebacteria
Domain
Eukarya
Kingdom
Fungi
Kingdom
Animalia
Kingdom
Plantae
Kingdom
Protista
Kingdom Eubacteria
 Unicellular (1 cell)
 Prokaryotic (no nucleus)
 Includes all true bacteria
 Lives in and on almost everything
Kingdom Archaebacteria
 Unicellular (1 cell)
 Prokaryotic (no nucleus)
 Lives in extreme environments
Kingdom Fungi
 multi-cellular (more than l cell)
 Eukaryotic (nucleus)
 Break down material outside the body and
then absorb it.
Kingdom Animalia
 Multi-cellular (many cells)
 Eukaryotic (nucleus)
 Consume other organisms for food.
Kingdom Plantae
 multi-cellular (more than l cell)
 Eukaryotic (nucleus)
 Use the sun energy to make their own food.
Kingdom Protista
 Multi-cellular or unicellular
 Eukaryotic (nucleus)
 Mostly live in water
 Don’t fit into other kingdoms