taxonomy

ZOOLOGY NOTES—CLASSIFICATION OF ANIMALS INTERESTING FACTS ABOUT ANIMAL SPECIES v More than 1.5 million species of animals have been named v This number is estimated to be less than 20% of all living animals, and less than 1% of those that existed in the past ü Taxonomy is the branch of science that uses everything that is known about animals to determine their relationships ü Aristotle was a Greek philosopher and biologist, and was the first to classify organisms based on their structures ü Our current system of classification was developed in the 1700s by Carolus Linnaeus, a botanist from Sweden. His classification plan was described in his book, __Systema Naturae.__ ü Linnaeus’ hierarchical system of classification groups organisms in groups of ever-increasing inclusiveness called ‘taxa’ The seven classification groups according to Linnaeus o Kingdom o Phylum o Class o Order o Family o Genus o Species Each organism in Linnaeus’ classification plan was named by ‘binomial nomenclature’  Humans---//Homo sapiens//  Gorillas---//Gorilla gorilla//  Dogs---//Canis familiaris// Characteristics used to determine classification groupings include appearance (morphology), chromosome features, and molecular structure A species is defined as a group of organisms that can reproduce and produce fertile offspring Originally, all organisms were defined as either plants or animals, but some organisms didn’t really fit into either category In 1969, R.H. Whittaker created a five-kingdom system of classification that is still used today. PROKARYOTES ARE ORGANISMS WITH NO NUCLEUS <span style="font-family: Wingdings; mso-bidi-font-family: Wingdings; mso-fareast-font-family: Wingdings; msobidifontfamily: Wingdings; msofareastfontfamily: Wingdings; msolist: Ignore;">Ø Kingdom Monera—bacteria EUKARYOTES ARE ORGANISMS WITH A NUCLEUS <span style="font-family: Wingdings; mso-bidi-font-family: Wingdings; mso-fareast-font-family: Wingdings; msobidifontfamily: Wingdings; msofareastfontfamily: Wingdings; msolist: Ignore;">Ø Kingdom Protista—Unicellular organisms <span style="font-family: Wingdings; mso-bidi-font-family: Wingdings; mso-fareast-font-family: Wingdings; msobidifontfamily: Wingdings; msofareastfontfamily: Wingdings; msolist: Ignore;">Ø Kingdom Fungi—molds, yeast, and mushrooms that obtain their food by absorption <span style="font-family: Wingdings; mso-bidi-font-family: Wingdings; mso-fareast-font-family: Wingdings; msobidifontfamily: Wingdings; msofareastfontfamily: Wingdings; msolist: Ignore;">Ø Kingdom Plantae—organisms that produce their own food by photosynthesis <span style="font-family: Wingdings; mso-bidi-font-family: Wingdings; mso-fareast-font-family: Wingdings; msobidifontfamily: Wingdings; msofareastfontfamily: Wingdings; msolist: Ignore;">Ø Kingdom Animalia—organisms that must ingest (eat) food to survive
 * Each species has a Latinized name consisting of two words written in italics
 * The first word is the name of the genus and is capitalized
 * The second word is the species and begins with a lower case letter
 * Examples of scientific names of animals