classification of life on earth
TRANSCRIPT
Classification of Life on Earth
With millions of species alive on this planet, how would one even begin to
organize them??
Aristotle was the first person known to classify (organize) living things
scientifically. In his system he divided everything into
two categories: Plants and Animals
Carolus Linnaeus
200 years after Aristotle, Linnaeus
came up with a different classification
scheme. His idea was to group plants and animals based on
similarities in their structures.
Linnaeus developed what is known as the “Classification Hierarchy”
The Classification Hierarchy is: a
system used to organize the many different organisms found on Earth
into groups
Lets watch a short clip about Linnaeus
In this system, groups that have the largest number of different organisms are called
KINGDOMS
The Kingdom level is then broken down into 6 smaller levels. Each level contains
fewer types of organisms than the level before. The
SPECIES level includes only one type of organism.
An easy way to remember:
KING PHILLIP CAME OVER FOR GOOD SHOES, SPEGHETTI
Each individual organism is classified using this system:
Organisms are called by their “ Scientific Name”
This is a combination of the Genus and
species. The genus is always capitalized and the species is written in
italics and lower case
For example: Humans = Homo sapiens Dogs = Canis lupis
Polar bear = Ursus maritimus
Linnaeus and later scientists have done all the work: All we have to do is use a Dichotomous Key to
find out the identity of an organism:
Dichotomous key: A system used for identifying things that is made up of a series of paired
descriptions to choose between
The best way to learn how to use a dichotomous key is to jump right in and practice… So let’s TRY…
Planet Pamishan Creatures- We will use a dichotomous key to identify all 20 creatures..
Don’t freak out.. We will do one at a time!
We will now look through the Key and follow the directions until we identify this Pamishan
creature…
We will now look through the Key and follow the directions until we identify this Pamishan
creature…
We will now look through the Key and follow the directions until we identify this Pamishan
creature…
We will now look through the Key and follow the directions until we identify this Pamishan
creature…
We will now look through the Key and follow the directions until we identify this Pamishan
creature…
This creature’s name is Narrowus portus
Ok, now we have done one together - identify the others on your own…