1.2.

1 Classification
How Organisms are Classified: Basics
•There are millions of species of organisms on Earth
•A species is defined as a group of organisms that
can reproduce to produce fertile offspring
•These species can be classified into groups by the features
that they share e.g. all mammals have bodies covered in
hair, feed young from mammary glands and have external
ears (pinnas)
The Binomial System

•Organisms were first classified by a Swedish naturalist called Linnaeus in a way

that allows the subdivision of living organisms into smaller and more specialised
groups
•The species in these groups have more and more features in common the more
subdivided they get
•He named organisms in Latin using the binomial system where the scientific
name of an organism is made up of two parts starting with the genus (always given
a capital letter) and followed by the species (starting with a lower case letter)
•When typed binomial names are always in italics (which indicates they are Latin)
e.g. Homo sapiens
•The sequence of classification
is: Kingdom, Phylum, Class, Order, Family, Genus, Species
The order of classification can be remembered by using a mnemonic like:KING PHILIP CAME
OVER FOR GRAN’S SPAGHETTI
How Organisms are Classified
•Organisms share features because they originally descend from a common ancestor
•Example: all mammals have bodies covered in hair, feed young from mammary glands
and have external ears (pinnas)
•Originally, organisms were classified using morphology (the overall form and shape of
the organism, e.g. whether it had wings or legs) and anatomy (the detailed body structure
as determined by dissection)
•As technology advanced, microscopes, knowledge of biochemistry and eventually DNA
sequencing allowed us to classify organisms using a more scientific approach
•Studies of DNA sequences of different species show that the more similar the base
sequences in the DNA of two species, the more closely related those two species
are (and the more recent in time their common ancestor is)
•This means that the base sequences in a mammal’s DNA are more closely related to all
other mammals than to any other vertebrate groups
DNA sequences can show how closely related different species are

The sequences above show that Brachinus armiger and Brachinus hirsutus are more closely
related than any other species in the list as their DNA sequences are identical except for the
last but one base (B.armiger has a T in that position whereas B.hirsutus has an A)
As DNA base sequences are used to code for amino acid sequences in proteins, the
similarities in amino acid sequences can also be used to determine how closely related
organisms are
1.3.1 Features of Organisms

Common Cell Structures

•The cells of all living organisms contain the following:
• Cytoplasm
• Cell membrane
• DNA as genetic material (either found in the nucleus or free in the cytoplasm)
A typical animal cell and plant cell
A typical prokaryotic cell
 Cell Composition & Structure
•When viewed under an electron microscope (at a much higher magnification), all cells also
contain the following:
• Ribosomes for protein synthesis
• Enzymes for respiration (in many, but not all types of cells, found in mitochondria

The Five Kingdoms

•The first division of living things in the classification system is to put them into one of five
kingdoms. They are:
• Animals
• Plants
• Fungi
• Protoctists
• Prokaryotes
 A typical animal cell

Main features of all animals:

• they are multicellular
• their cells contain a nucleus but no cell walls or chloroplasts
• they feed on organic substances made by other living things
Main features of all plants:
• they are multicellular
• their cells contain a nucleus, chloroplasts and cellulose cell walls
• they all feed by photosynthesis
 
Fungi, Protoctists & Prokaryotes
•Main features of all fungi (e.g. moulds, mushrooms, yeast)
• usually multicellular
• cells have nuclei and cell walls not made from cellulose
• do not photosynthesize but feed by saprophytic (on dead or decaying material) or
parasitic (on live material) nutrition
 
Main features of all Protoctists (e.g. Amoeba, Paramecium, Plasmodium)
• most are unicellular but some are multicellular
• all have a nucleus, some may have cell walls and chloroplasts
• meaning some protoctists photosynthesise and some feed on organic
substances made by other living things
 

Two examples of protoctist cells

• Main features of all Prokaryotes (bacteria, blue-green algae)
• often unicellular
• cells have cell walls (not made of cellulose) and cytoplasm but no nucleus or
mitochondria

A typical bacterial cell

1.4.1 Classifying Animals
All vertebrates have a backbone. There are 5 classes of vertebrates:
Vertebrate classification
Invertebrates
•One of the morphological characteristics used to classify invertebrates is whether they have
legs or not
•All invertebrates with jointed legs are part of the phylum Arthropods
•They are classified further into the following classes:
Arthropod classification
1.5.1 Classifying Plants

Ferns & Flowering Plants

•At least some parts of any plant are green, caused by the presence of the
pigment chlorophyll which absorbs energy from sunlight for the process of photosynthesis
•The plant kingdom includes organisms such as ferns and flowering plants
Ferns:
•Have leaves called fronds
•Do not produce flowers but instead reproduce by spores produced on the underside of
fronds

Ferns

Ferns reproduce by spores found in the underside of their fronds

Flowering plants:
•Reproduce sexually by means of flowers and seeds
•Seeds are produced inside the ovary found at the base of the flower
•Can be divided into two groups – monocotyledons and dicotyledons

Sunflowers are dicotyledons

Wheat plants are monocotyledons
How to distinguish between monocotyledons and dicotyledons:
•1) FLOWERS
•Flowers from monocotyledons contain petals in multiples of 3
•Flowers from dicotyledons contain petals in multiples of 4 or 5
•2) LEAVESLeaves from monocotyledons have parallel leaf veins
•Leaves from dicotyledons have reticulated leaf veins (meaning that they are all
interconnected and form a web-like network throughout the leaf)
 Comparing monocots and dicots

Exam Tip
Identification of monocotyledons and dicotyledons comes up fairly frequently in the multiple
choice paper and so it is worth learning the two differences between their flowers and leaves.
 1.6.1 Viruses

Features of Viruses
•Viruses are not part of any classification system as they are not considered living things
•They do not carry out the seven life processes for themselves, instead they take over a host
cell’s metabolic pathways in order to make multiple copies of themselves
•Virus structure is simply genetic material (RNA or DNA) inside a protein coat

Structure of a typical virus

1.7.1 Dichotomous Keys

Constructing & Using a Key

•Keys are used to identify organisms based on a series of questions about their features
•Dichotomous means ‘branching into two’ and it leads the user through to the name of
the organism by giving two descriptions at a time and asking them to choose
•Each choice leads the user onto another two descriptions
•In order to successfully navigate a key, you need to pick a single organism to start with
and follow the statements from the beginning until you find the name
•You then pick another organism and start at the beginning of the key again, repeating
until all organisms are named
Example of a dichotomous key #1
Exam Tip
Simple dichotomous keys almost always come up in the multiple choice paper, so make sure
you can use one. Very occasionally they show up in the theory paper, and when they do you
almost always have to use one instead of constructing one, so focus on this rather than
spending hours learning to construct them yourself!