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Classification of Species

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61 views5 pages

Classification of Species

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Korla Nikhil
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© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Classification of living organisms

Linnaean system of classification


Living organisms are classified into groups depending on their
structure and characteristics. This system was developed in the
eighteenth century by Carl Linnaeus.
The classification of species allows the subdivision of living
organisms into smaller and more specialised groups.
Kingdoms
The first division of living things in the classification system is to
put them into one of five kingdoms.
The five kingdoms are:

 animals (all multicellular animals)


 plants (all green plants)
 fungi (moulds, mushrooms, yeast)
 protists (Amoeba, Chlorella and Plasmodium)
 prokaryotes (bacteria, blue-green algae)

Further divisions
Living things can then be ranked according to:

 phylum
 class
 order
 family
 genus
 species

Phylum follows Kingdoms and has many different organisms,


including three examples below:

 Chordata, which have backbones


 Arthropod, which have jointed legs and an exoskeleton
 Annelids, which are segmented worms

Class is an additional sub-division, which for example, results in the


Chordata phylum being divided into:

 Mammals
 Birds
 Amphibians
 Fish
 Reptiles
Order follows class and as an example, mammals can be further
sub-divide into a variety of different groups such as:

 Carnivores
 Primates

Orders are broken down into families. Here are a few examples of
which carnivores can be divided into:

 Canidae - dogs
 Felidae - cats

Genus, the Felidae family can be further sub-divided into four genus
examples:

 Acinonyx - cheetah
 Panthera - lion and tiger
 Neofelis - clouded leopard
 Felis - domestic cats

Species is the final classification stage, and the genus Panthera can
be divided into:

 Panthera leo (lion)


 Panthera tigris (tiger)

As an example, the complete breakdown of the classification


of lions:

 kingdom - animal
 phylum - vertebrate
 class - mammal
 order - carnivorous
 family - cat
 genus - big cat
 species - lion

There are many ways to remember this order, for example using the
mnemonic:
Kids prefer candy over fresh green salad

Figure caption,
Erithacus rubecula, the European Robin
The binomial system of naming species uses Latin words. Each
name has two parts, the genus and the species. For example,
human beings belong to the genus Homo, and our species is sapiens
- so the scientific name is Homo sapiens.
The binomial system is important because it allows scientists to
accurately identify individual species. For example, the European
robin is Erithacus rubecula. It is much smaller than the American
robin, Turdus migratorius, which belongs to a different genus.
The grouping of families was added to allow the large number of
new species to be included in this system. Linnaeus' original ideas
have been adapted, but continued to be accepted and as new
species are identified they can be fitted into the current
classification system.
Originally, Linnaeus couldn't distinguish between different types of
organisms such as algae, lichens, fungi, mosses and ferns. The
inability to examine such organisms in detail made separation of
these difficult at the time.
As more scientific equipment became available it allowed scientists
to examine organisms in more detail and note important features,
such as the identification of sex organs. This allowed more divisions
to be created, and with the advancement of technology, this
allowed the development of Linnaeus's classification system.

Three-domain system
Classification systems have continued to be developed by other
scientists, such as Carl Woese who developed the three-domain
system. This is based on evidence now available from chemical
analysis.
The updated system divides organisms into:

 Archaea (primitive bacteria usually living in extreme


environments)
 Bacteria (true bacteria)
 Eukaryota (including protists, fungi, plants and animals)

Evolutionary trees
Evolutionary trees are a method used by scientists to represent the
relationships between a set of organisms. The tips of the tree often
represent different species and where two branches join, this
represents a common ancestor for those two species. They can be
created from current data such as DNA analysis and existing fossil
data.

Figure caption,
A generalised evolutionary tree

Evolutionary trees can be created using DNA sequences of different


species. This allows scientists to examine the differences at a DNA
level, which may have led to evolutionary splits millions of years
ago.

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