Classification of Organisms

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Classification of Organisms
Appropriate for grades (5-9)
Developed by Andrew Leech
Students should be able to Understand why a
classification system is important Understand
that there are a variety of ways to classify
organisms Understand the origins of our modern
classification system
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What is an Organism?
An organism is generally referred to any
living thing. More specifically any thing that
has cells. This includes the smallest of
organisms, the single celled bacteria, all the
way to the largest redwood tree or Blue Whale.
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The Classification Game!!
Divide into groups of 3 or 4
In the following few slides, you will find 14
different organisms, each of them labeled with a
letter. In your groups, write down two main
classification (example red/green). Then place
the corresponding letters under the correct
classification.
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For Example
These organisms have been classified by their
color.
Red
Green
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ARE
YOU
READY!
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One Possible Solution
Animals
Plants
????
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Did You Have Problems??
There were actually several different ways to
go about classifying these 14 organisms. You
might have done color, shape, size, number of
legs the possibilities are endless. You might
have encountered one or two that really did not
fit into either of your two classifications, what
should you do when this happens? Make a new
classification of course! And this is what
scientist have done as well through the years.
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Our modern classification system originated
with two main classifications, plants and
animals. Over the years, scientist came up with
certain plants that really did not act like
plants, they couldnt make their own food. So
the kingdom Fungi was formed.
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When microscopes were invented, scientist
discovered new single celled organisms. Some
were animal-like, some were plant like and some
were both. This lead to the creation of the
Kingdom Protista.
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As the microscope improved, scientist discovered
that many of the single celled organisms were
quite different. Some of them had a nucleus and
others did not. This lead to the Kingdom Monera,
the kingdom of the most simplistic organisms.
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Who first developed a system to classify
organisms?
As early as 350 B.C., the Greek
Philosopher Aristotle created guidelines for
grouping living things. Aristotle grouped
organisms based on four characteristics body
parts, life histories, activities, and character.
There were ten groups of animals, six of
which he called blooded and four bloodless.
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Humans, birds and fish were considered to be
blooded, while insects and mollusks
were considered to be bloodless. Aristotles
system may seem crude by todays standards, but
for his time, it was extremely imaginative.
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Who Needs a Classification System?
When you go to the grocery store, how do know how
to find the milk?
When you go to the clothing store, how do you
know where to look for your favorite brand?
When you go to the movie store, how do you find
the movie youre looking for?
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When you want to learn about the mating habits of
the Blue Swallow Butterfly, where do you find
your information.
It is for this reason that a classification
system is necessary. It is a tool that allows
scientist to study similar organisms to learn
more about how certain organisms work and
function.
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For example if you wanted to find information on
a new organism that you just discovered, you
could look at organisms with similar traits and
could come up with some good ideas as to what it
eats, mating habits, or any other pertinent
information you might want to find.
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Who developed the modern system?
Along with Aristotles version of the
classification system, there were several more,
completely different systems added throughout the
years. After a while, it became quite confusing
for many scientist when they did their
research, they did not know which system to look
in. This lead towards a universal system
that could be used world wide.
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The Modern System
The modern classification system was developed
by the Swedish scientist Carolus Linnaeus in the
mid 1700s. As Linnaeus created his method of
classification, he considered many things. Some
characteristics he used to classify organisms
were outside appearance, internal organs, and how
body systems worked. Modern scientists are still
using most of Linnaeuss classification system.
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Linnaeus used the Latin language because that
was the language that was dominate around the
world at that time. This is why even today
organisms scientific names are always in Latin.
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Along with the two major Kingdoms, Plant and
Animal, Linnaeus came up with several
sub-classifications for those kingdoms. They
are Kingdom, Phylum, Class, Order Family,
Genus, and Species.
What Kingdom are you in?
What phylum are you in? Why?
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The Human Species
Kingdom Phylum Class Order Family Genus Spec
ies
Animalia (Animal in Latin)
Chordata (Spinal Cord)
Mammalia (have mammary glands)
Primates (two mammary glands)
Hominoidea (bipedalism)
Homo
Sapien
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When you refer to an organism scientifically, you
always use the genus and the specie
names. Therefore, the human species would be
referred to as
Homo sapien
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Conclusion
The classification system for organisms have been
around for a long time. It has endured several
changes and is quite complex. Without it modern
biology could not exist, much in the same way
that a grocery store would go out of business if
it did not have a classification system.