Classification of Living
Organisms
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All photos, text and graphics
Copyright 2007
Kris H. Light
Hierarchical Classification of
Organisms
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Domain – Bacteria, Archaea, Eukarya (added in 1990)
Kingdom – Animals, Plants, Fungi, Protista, and Monera
Phylum
Class
Order
Family
Genus
Species
An easy way to remember the correct order is the
mnemonic: Dashing King Phillip Came Over From
Geneva Switzerland
So what is a “domain”?
Newer classification models have domains listed
above the kingdoms. “Domains” are the cell type
that an organism has. There are 3 domains:
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Bacteria – the “common”
bacteria and blue-green algae
(cyanobacteria). Considered
Procaryotes (meaning “before
true cells”), they are single
cells that lack a nucleus and
organelles
Archaea – ancient bacteria
(“extremeophiles”) that can
survive in harsh environments
such as high heat, low pH
(acidic water), and high saline
(salt content); they are single
cells that lack a nucleus and
organelles
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Eukarya – these cells contain a
nucleus and other organelles
(eukarya means “true cells”) .
These cells can specialize to
become tissues and organs in
higher organisms.
Animals, plants, fungi and
protists have eukaryotic cells.
Typical Animal and Plant cells
Animal cell
Plant cell
Kingdom Monera
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Kingdom Monera is
made up of the singlecelled bacteria,
cyanobacteria and
archaeobacteria
Vorticella - a stalked single-celled
Protozoan (on algae, 100X mag.)
Kingdom Protista
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Giant Kelp
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Organisms in
the Kingdom
Protista can be
as small as a
single-celled
organism
(protozoan) or
as large as a
stalk of giant
kelp. The cells
of these
organisms do
not specialize.
Organisms in
this kingdom
include:
protozoa, algae,
and slime molds
Slime mold
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Eyelash Cup
Kingdom Fungi
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Rust on blackberry leaf
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Witches’ Butter
Purple Russula
Fungi are one-celled (yeast)
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or multi-celled decomposers
or parasites. The kingdom
includes mushrooms and Gem-studded
Puffball
puffballs, yeast, mildew,
and molds.
Columned Stinkhorn
Splash Cups
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Stalked Puffball in
Aspic
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Lichens are a 2-Kingdom
organism Pixie Cups Lichen
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Lichens are a symbiotic
combination of fungi and
algae, making them a 2kingdom organism
(Protista and Fungi)!
The fungal cells give the
lichen its shape and hold
water, the algal cells
photosynthesize and
make food for the
lichen.
There are 3 kinds of
lichen: crustose, foliose
and fruiticose
Lichens are pioneer
organisms; they are
among the first to
colonize newly-formed
land. The acids they
produce help make new
soil.
British Soldier Lichen
(fruiticose)
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Foliose Lichen on
mailbox
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Foliose Lichen on rock
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Fire Pink
Club Moss
Kingdom Plantae
(Plants)
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Plants are multi-cellular (with cell
specialization), most are green
and make their own food through
photosynthesis. They are
considered producers since many
of them are eaten by animals.
Plants can be as tiny as duckweed
or grow to giant size like the
sequoia (redwood) trees. Some
plants reproduce by spores, others
by seeds, and some vegetatively.
Flowering plants, cone-bearing
trees, ferns, mosses, liverworts,
club mosses are in the plant
kingdom.
Lycopodium
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Fern
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Giant Sequoia trees
Liverwort
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Opossum
Kingdom Animalia
(Animals) Green Sea Anemone
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Gray Tree Frog
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Barnacles and
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Mussels
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Buckeye Butterfly
Animals inhabit every part
of the earth from the
bottom of the oceans to
the tops of the high
Blue Crab
mountains.
They can be microscopic
(like a rotifer) or as large
as a blue whale.
Animals have outer
coverings of: skin, fur,
shells, scales, or feathers. 5-lined Skink
Animals can be producers
(prey) or consumers
(predators).
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Canada Goose
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Male Black Widow
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Bones or no bones about it!
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Invertebrates have no
backbone. All of these
animals are cold-blooded
and they lay eggs. This is
the largest group of
animals on earth.
They include:Arthropods,
worms, sponges,
mollusks, echinoderms,
and coelenterates
Vertebrates have a
backbone and other
bones. Most are coldblooded, 2 groups
(mammals and birds) are
warm-blooded. Most lay
eggs (except mammals).
„ Vertebrates include:
Mammals, birds, fish,
reptiles, and amphibians
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Invertebrates make up 98% of the
world’s species of animals!
Arthropods –
Mollusks – slugs, Worms –
Sponges
Echinoderms –
Insects, spiders,
crustaceans,
millipedes, and
centipedes
snails, octopus, squid, Roundworms,
bivalves, gastropods,
flatworms, annelids
cuttlefish, nudibranchs
Sea stars, sand
dollars, sea
cucumbers, brittle
stars
Coelenterates
(Cnidarians) –
Sea anemones, corals,
hydras, siphonophores
Echinoderms
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Ochre Sea Star
Echinoderm means “spiny
skin.” These animals have
a hard or leathery
covering on their surface.
Echinoderms (including
sea stars, sea cucumbers,
sand dollars, keyhole
urchins, and sea urchins)
are ocean dwellers, most
are carnivorous. They lay
eggs. Sea Urchin
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Sand Dollar
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Sea hare
Mollusks
Blue Mussels
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Limpets
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Banana Slug
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Snail
Cuttlefish
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Mollusks are soft-bodied
animals that may or may not
have a shell. Some live on
land, others live in freshwater,
some live in the ocean. They
lay eggs. Some eat plants or
algae, others eat meat.
Mollusks include: Sea hares,
sea slugs, bivalves,
gastropods, limpets, chitons,
snails, slugs, squid, octopus,
cuttlefish, and nautilis.
Spider
Blue Crab
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Millipede
Dragonfly
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Arthropods
Centipede
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Arthropod means “jointed leg.” These animals are cold-blooded,
they lay eggs, they have an exoskeleton, they can live on land, in
freshwater, or in the ocean. Arthropods can have from 6 legs to
over 100, they are often classified by the number of legs they have.
The animals that are arthropods include: Insects, spiders,
crustaceans, millipedes and centipedes.
Hercules Beetle
Insects
Lacewing larva
Eating an aphid
Fly
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Buckeye Butterfly
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Florida Leaf-footed Bug
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Ants “milking” aphids
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Dragonfly
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Io Moth
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All insects have 3
body parts (head,
thorax, abdomen)
and 6 legs. Not all
insects have
wings. They are
cold-blooded and
most lay eggs.
Insects can be
plant eaters or eat
meat or blood.
Most insects do
not sting or bite!
There are 32
orders of insects.
Mosquito
eating me!
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Camel Cricket
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Garden Spider
Arachnids-
Green Lynx
Arrow-shaped
Micrathena
Spiders, Mites,
Ticks and
Scorpions
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Scorpion
Velvet Mite
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Spiders, mites, ticks and
scorpions have 2 body
parts and 8 legs. They also
have 8 eyes. Spiders and
scorpions are carnivorous.
These animals are usually
venomous (although not
always dangerous). Spiders
may be web-builders or
hunter / stalkers.
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Jumping Spider
Dog Tick
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Water Flea – 100x mag.
Female Fiddler Crab with eggs
Crustaceans
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Crustaceans have a hard
exoskeleton. They have 3
body parts (like an insect,
but head and thorax are
often fused into a
cephalothorax) and 10 or
more legs. These animals
can live in marine or
freshwater, a few live on
dry land. Crustaceans are
cold-blooded and lay eggs.
Animals include: Lobsters,
shrimp, crabs, woodlice
(“roly-poly”), hermit crabs,
amphipods, waterfleas,
brine shrimp, ostracods,
copepods, and krill.
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Terrestrial Crawfish
Woodlice
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Hermit Crab
Barnacles
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Vertebrates
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Cold-blooded (exothermic
– “outside heat”) animals
cannot make their own
heat, their bodies are the
same temperature as
their surroundings. Many
warm themselves in the
sun to raise their
temperature.
All animals except
mammals and birds are
cold-blooded.
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Warm-blooded
(endothermic – “inside
heat”) animals produce
their own heat as a
byproduct of their
metabolism.
Mammals and birds are
warm-blooded. The only
large land animals in
Antarctia are penguins
and seals.
Alligator
Desert Tortoise
Reptiles
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Reptiles are cold-blooded, or exothermic,
they must sun themselves to get warm. Most
reptiles have scales on their skin, they lay their
eggs on land, they are vertebrates,
and they breathe air. Reptiles have
either 4 legs or no legs. Animals that are reptiles
include: snakes, lizards, skinks, tuataras, turtles
and tortoises. Some live in freshwater, some in
saltwater and some live on land.
Eastern Spiny Soft-shelled
Turtle
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Copperhead Snake
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Five-lined Skink
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Hellbender
Amphibians
amphi “both”, bio “ life”
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An Amphibian is an animal
that lives part of its life on
land and part in water.
They lay their eggs in the
water. In the tadpoles or
larvae phase they have
gills and can breathe
under water. As adults,
they live on land, have
lungs, and must breathe
air at the surface.
Frogs, toads, salamanders,
newts, and hellbenders are
amphibians. They are
vertebrates, cold-blooded,
lay eggs (in water), have
smooth skin, have 4 legs,
breathe air, and most are
carnivores.
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Frog
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Toad
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Salamander
Blue Tang
Gar
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Fish come in all shapes,
colors and sizes. They live
from warm, shallow
waters to the deep, cold
ocean bottom. Some live
in fresh water, others live
in salt water.
Fish lay eggs, breathe
oxygen from the water
through their gills and
they have a backbone.
Fish
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Leafy Sea Dragon
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Trout
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Great Blue Heron
Mallard Ducks
Cardinal
Birds
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Great Horned Owl
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Coot
Red-bellied
Woodpecker
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Black-crowned Night
Heron
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Birds live on all 7
continents in all kinds of
environments. The kind
of beak a bird has
determines the type of
food it can eat. Their feet
are adapted to perch,
walk, wade, creep, catch
prey, or swim.
All birds have feathers,
are warm blooded and
they lay eggs.
California Horn Snail
Scavengers
Black Vulture
Flesh Fly
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Scavengers may seem
unpleasant because
they eat dead
animals. They are
very important
because they help
Blue Crab
prevent spread of
diseases and they
return nutrients into
the environment.
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Crow eating a dead squirrel
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Harbor Seals
Cottontail Rabbit
Mammals
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Shrew
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Raccoon
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Mammals are warmblooded, have fur,
and breathe air. The
mothers feed their
babies milk.
Most mammals are
not colorful and do
not see color well.
Porcupine
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Moose with calves
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Herbivorous Mammals
White-tailed deer
(doe)
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Elk
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White-tailed deer skull (buck)
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Herbivores are plant eaters. Herbivores
have eyes on the side of their head for a
wider range of vision, but they don’t have
good depth of field vision. Ungulates and
rodents are mammalian herbivores.
Herbivores have incisor teeth for cutting
leaves and twigs, and molars for grinding
plant material.
Ungulates include: sheep, cattle, deer,
giraffe, zebra, rhinos, tapirs, camels,
llama, warthog, peccary, hippopotamus,
reindeer, bison, ibex, musk ox and goats.
Many ungulates have no top incisors,
have 4 stomachs and chew cud. All
ungulates have hooves, some have horns
or antlers. Female ungulates can have
horns but not antlers (except reindeer),
horns do not fall off. Male deer, elk,
reindeer and moose have antlers made of
bone. They fall off in the fall and begin to
grow back in the spring.
Groundhog / Woodchuck
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Rodents
Gray Squirrel
Rodents have incisors that do
not quit growing, the animals
must gnaw to keep the teeth
from growing too large. They
include: Chipmunks, beavers,
mice, rats, porcupines,
capybara, and squirrels.
Rabbits are not rodents, they
are lagomorphs.
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Eastern Chipmunk
Muskrat skull
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Skunk Skull
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Carnivorous
Mammals
Carnivores are meat
eaters. They have long
canine teeth for piercing
and ripping flesh from
the bone. Their small
incisors are used for
nipping off small pieces
of meat. Their jagged
molars crush bones or
shells. Many carnivores
swallow their food
without chewing it much.
Carnivores have eyes
facing the front for better
depth of field vision.
Mexican Wolf
Cat
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Kit Fox
California Sealion
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Opossum
Omnivores
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Raccoon
Omnivores are mammals that eat
both plants and meat. Mammals
that are omnivores have incisors,
molars and canine teeth.
Some omnivores include:
opossums, raccoons, bears,
skunks, foxes, box turtles
Box Turtle eating mushroom
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4 Finger bones
Bats
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Bats are the only mammals
that are able to fly rather than
glide. Bats are in the order
Chiroptera (meaning “handwing”) because their wings are
actually modified arms and
hands!
Bats are important animals,
they control insect
populations by eating up to
3000 mosquitoes in one night.
In some parts of the world,
bats pollinate flowers (such as
bananas) and spread seeds to
re-vegetate the jungles.
Humerus
Ulna / Radius
Thumb
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Follow-up questions
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1. What is a domain? Where is it located on the organization chart?
2. What is the difference between bacteria cells and eukaryotes?
3. What are the differences between plant and animal cells?
4. Name the 5 kingdoms
5. What is the difference between an invertebrate and a vertebrate?
Which group has the most animals?
6. What does exothermic and endothermic mean? Which are you?
7. What group of animals does not lay eggs?
8. The mothers of which group of animals feed their babies milk?
9. What is a carnivore? What type of teeth are specific to these
animals?
10. What is an ungulate? Give some examples.
11. Give some examples of rodents.
End of Presentation
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Kris Light ([email protected])