Taxonomy



Taxonomy NotesTaxonomy is the science of classifying organisms. We currently use the Linnaean taxonomic system, in honor of Swedish biologist Carolus Linnaeus (1707 — 1778) who first developed this method of breaking down organisms. This system breaks down the domains into seven major divisions, and is called Taxonomy. The divisions are as follows:Major Taxonomic LevelsKingdomPhylum Class Order Family Genus SpeciesThe classification levels become more specific towards the bottom. It can also be depicted by a triangle with the large base at the top for Kingdom and each level getting narrower as it leads to species at the triangle point. Many organisms belong to the same kingdom; fewer belong to the same phylum, class, order, family, and genus, until each specific organism is placed in a specific species. A species is defined as a group of genetically-distinct organisms that can breed and produce fertile offspring. There will be many more diverse organisms within a kingdom than a species. Now that scientists have created the 3 Domains, the Domain is even more general and could include more than 1 kingdom. The new classification levels could be written as:DomainKingdomPhylum Class Order Family Genus SpeciesThis would place the Domain name over the Taxonomy System of Linnaeus. Here are two examples of the Linnaean taxonomic system of classification, for humans and bobcat. Both would be in the domain mon Name: Human Bobcat DOMAIN:Kingdom: EUKARYAAnimalia EUKARYAAnimalia Phylum: Chordata Chordata Class: Mammalia Mammalia Order: Primata CarnivoraFamily: Hominidae FelidaeGenus: Homo LynxSpecies: Homo sapiens Lynx rufusThe scientific name of an organism is the genus and species; this is called binomial nomenclature, meaning a two-name system. When using this listing, the genus should always be italicized and capitalized, while the species is italicized but not capitalized. The genus name is included for the species name. Taxonomic names are usually in Latin. Using Latin helps to give a general description of the organism through its taxonomic classification. The descriptive names work for other species as well. So long as you understand some Latin, you can learn a lot about an organism from its scientific name. For example, look at our own species name: Homo sapiens. Homo means “self” or “same”, meaning “the same as me” — which, for you, means “human”. Sapiens means “wise”. Therefore, Homo sapiens means “Wise human”.It may also be helpful to define some common Latin terms used in naming organisms, such as Felis = cat-like, Canis = dog-like, Podus = foot, so you can start to realize that the Latin naming system is purposeful. Specific words are chosen to describe organism characteristics. ................
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