organizing life’s diversity
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Organizing Life’s Diversity . Classification: the grouping of objects or organisms based on their similarities Biologists use a system of classification to organize information about the diversity of living things - PowerPoint PPT PresentationTRANSCRIPT
Organizing Life’s Diversity • Classification: the grouping of objects or
organisms based on their similarities• Biologists use a system of classification to
organize information about the diversity of living things
• Taxonomy is a branch of Biology that is the science of classifying/grouping and naming of organisms
Earth’s Amazing Diversity
Aristotle’s Classification System • Greek philosopher who developed first classification
system • Divided all organisms into 2 GROUPS: • Non motile (plants) • Plants were grouped by:• Size small, medium, large for things like herbs,
shrubs, and trees• Motile (animals) • Animals were grouped by:• Their Habitat (air, water, land)• Morphology (form or structure) • “Red-Blooded” and “Bloodless”
Linnaeus's Classification System • 18th Century Swedish Naturalist who broadened
Aristotle’s classification method • Created a system of naming organisms by their
structures and their behavior. (He didn’t realize it but he was also classifying them by evolutionary relationship).
• Linnaeus’s system of naming and grouping organisms is called “Binominal Nomenclature” and this system is still valid today.• Written in Latin • Gives each species a scientific name that has two parts:• First part: Genus• Second part: Species
Binomial Nomenclature• Genus: CAPITALIZED (noun)
• means beginning • Species: lowercase (adj.) • Example: • Humans: Homo (man) sapien (wise/thinking)• Whitetail Deer: Odocoileus virginianus• Italicized if printed, Underlined if written
• Organisms have a scientific name and a common name.• Scientific name is the Genus species name• Common name is what the organism is commonly
called and is not used in the scientific community
Binomial Nomenclature• The common name of an organism is not used by
scientists because one species may have many different common names depending on where the animal lives.• For example, the Mountain Lion, Mountain Cat, Black
Panther, Painter, Catamount, Ghost Cat, Cougar and the Puma are all the same organism. People that live in different areas just call it different things.
Can you think of any other
organisms that have multiple
common names?
The “New” Evolutionary Classification • Categories represent lines of evolutionary descent, not
just physical and behavioral similarities • This new method is called: Evolutionary
Classification • Scientists classify organisms based on their
Evolutionary beginnings • Cladograms are useful diagrams that are used to show evolutionary relationships between organisms (You may also hear this called a Phylogenetic Tree).
Cladograms/Phylogenetic Trees• Scientists use these to understand how one lineage branched
from another in the course of evolution
• To place organisms in a Cladogram, scientists consider ancestry and homologous characteristics not found in other organisms.
• A small number of characteristics are used to define each group.
• Claddists assume that each successive group has a more recent common ancestor that other previously branched species don’t share.
Cladograms/Phylogenetic Trees• Scientists use these to understand how one lineage branched
from another in the course of evolution
• To place organisms in a Cladogram, scientists consider ancestry and homologous characteristics not found in other organisms.
• A small number of characteristics are used to define each group.
• Claddists assume that each successive group has a more recent common ancestor that other previously branched species don’t share.