Taxonomy

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Taxonomy

• The science of naming organisms.

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Aristotle

• Plant or animal?
• If an animal, does it
• Fly
• Swim
• Crawl
• Simple classifications
• Used common names

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Carolus Linnaeus

• Described organisms with two word names, instead
  of polynomials
• Developed binomial nomenclature
• First word genus name
• Second word species name

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Why binomial nomenclature?

• Much easier than a 10 word name under old
  polynomial system
• Same name no matter where you go
• Less confusion
• Binomial SCIENTIFIC NAME

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Scientific Names You Need to Know

• Homo sapiens
• Canis lupus
• Felis domesticus
• Pan pan

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Taxonomic hierarchy

• Names organisms and their relationships from very
  broad to very specific

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All organisms classified in a hierarchy

• Kingdom (broadest)
• Phylum
• Class
• Order
• Family
• Genus
• Species (most specific)

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Notes assignment

• Look up the classification for humans for all
  seven hierarchies and write them below.

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What is a species anyway?

• Biological species concept
• A group of actually or potentially breeding
  natural groups that are reproductively isolated
  from other groups.
• Ernst Mayr, 1924
• BSCs problems
• Hybrids
• Sterile offspring of two different species
• Asexual organisms

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How many are out there?

• Scientists currently estimate that
• There are 10 million species worldwide
• Over 5 million live in the tropics
• Most unnamed species are small or microscopic

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Why is taxonomy useful?

• Helps prevent confusion among scientists
• Helps to show how organisms are related
• Can be used to reconstruct phylogenies
  evolutionary histories of an organism or group

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A note on cladograms

• Graph showing when different groups diverged from
  a common ancestral line
• Points where they diverge are often noted with a
  feature that was different between ancestral
  group and a new feature in the group that split
  off.

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Bird Cladogram
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The 6 kingdoms

• Prokaryotes (Used to be 1 kingdom, Monera)
• Archaebacteria
• Eubacteria
• Eukaryotes
• Fungi
• Protista
• Animal
• Plantae

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Overview of the 6 kingdoms

• Archaebacteria
• Unicellular
• Live in extreme environments
• Prokaryotic
• Eubacteria
• Unicellular
• Prokaryotic
• Common bacteria

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Overview of the 6 kingdoms

• Protista
• Eukaryotic
• Unicellular or colonial
• Lots of different life styles
• Fungi
• Cell walls made of chitin
• Eukaryotic
• Multicellular
• External heterotrophs

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Overview of the 6 kingdoms

• Plantae
• Eukaryotic Multicellular
• Cell walls made of cellulose
• Autotrophic
• Animalia
• Eukaryotic Multicellular
• No cell walls
• Internal heterotrophs