4.6.4 Classification of living organisms

Question 1

How have living things been classified into groups?

Answer 1

• Traditionally living things have been classified into groups depending on their structure and characteristics in a system developed by Carl Linnaeus

Question 2

What did Linnaeus classify living things into?

Answer 2

• Linnaeus classified living things into kingdom, phylum, class, order, family, genus and species
• Organisms are named by the binomial system of genus and species

Question 3

Describe the impact of developments in biology on classification systems.

Answer 3

• Technological advances in biological equipment have allowed the current classification system to be developed. - Three key advances have helped this development: use of microscopes studies of biochemistry DNA evidence Artificial classification

Question 4

What happened as internal structures became more developed due to improvements in microscopes?

Answer 4

• As evidence of internal structures became more developed due to improvements in microscopes and the understanding of biochemical processes progressed new models of classification were proposed

Question 5

Due to evidence available from chemical analysis there is now a three domain system developed by Carl Woese.
- in the system what are the organisms divided into?

Answer 5

• Archaea (primitive bacteria usually living in extreme environments)
• Bacteria (true bacteria)
• Eukaryota (which includes protists fungi plants and animals)

Question 6

What are evolutionary trees?

Answer 6

• Evolutionary trees are a method used by scientists to show how they believe organisms are related
• They use current classification date for living organisms and fossil data for extinct organisms