Taxonomy Notes
- Taxonomy- The science of classifying organisms.
- The system was developed by Carolus Linnaeus who used Greek and Latin names for organisms.
- Linnaeus created a system where we place all organisms into a few large groups called Kingdoms and those groups are further divided.
- Kingdom, Phylum, Class, Order, Family, Genus, Species. You can remember this by King Phillip Came Over For Great Soup
Kingdom
Phylum
Class
Order
Family
Genus
Species
Animalia
Chordata
Mammalia
Primate
Hominidae
Homo
Sapiens
- The system is called binomial nomenclature- which means it is a 2 name system.
- Scientific names must either be underlined or italicized.
- The genus is always capitalized, and the species is lowercase. It can be abbreviated. Ex: F. leo and F. tigris.
- Species- An organism that can interbreed with one another and can produce fertile offspring.
- Hybrid- When two organisms of different species interbreed
Classification into a kingdom is based on certain criteria: number of cells, how it obtains energy, and type of cell.
Kingdom Animalia- Multicellular, heterotrophic, most can move. Ex: Birds, insects, worms, mammals.
Kingdom Plantae- Multicellular, autotrophic, eukaryotic, cannot move (due to cell walls).
Kingdom Fungae- Multicellular (most), heterotrophic (mainly decomposers), eukaryotic.
Kingdom Protista- Most are unicellular, can be heterotrophic or autotrophic, eukaryotes (all have nucleus), most live in water. Ex: Ameba, paramecium.
Kingdom Eubacteria and Archaebacteria- Unicellular, can be autotrophic or heterotrophic, prokaryotes (do not have nucleus). Eubacteria=common bacteria, Archaebacteria="ancient bacteria", in extreme environments.