7B.2a Classification

Question 1

What is Classification?

Answer 1

It’s the way that biologists split different types of organisms up into different groups to help group and identify them.

Question 2

What are the 3 main groups called? (1)

Answer 2

Kingdoms

Question 3

What are the 3 Kingdoms (3)

Answer 3

Plants
Animals
Fungi

Question 4

How are PLANTS defined? (2)

Answer 4

• they PHOTOSYNTHESISE (make their own food from CO2 and H2O using energy from sunlight)
• they are PRODUCERS

Question 5

How are ANIMALS defined? (2)

Answer 5

• they CONSUME FOOD for energy (either by eating plants, fungi or other animals)
• they are CONSUMERS

Question 6

How are FUNGI defined? (2)

Answer 6

• Fungi are similar to plants, but CANNOT PHOTOSYNTHESISE

- they NEED TO FEED (through tubes, which look like roots)

Question 7

How are PLANTS further classified? (2)

Answer 7

1. according to the structure of the water tubes in their stem, and
2. whether or not they have flowers

Question 8

How is the ANIMAL KINGDOM classified? (2) And

what do these classifications mean (2)?

Answer 8

• VERTEBRATES (have a BACKBONE, e.g. snakes, humans) , and

- INVERTEBRATES (no backbone - e.g. jellyfish, insects)

Question 9

How are vertebrates sub-divided/Classified? (2 marks, plus 2 for description and examples) (= 4)

Answer 9

1. WARM BLOODED (e.g. Birds, Mammals). They keep a constant body temperature.
2. COLD BLOODED (e.g. reptiles, fish, amphibians). They need to sit in the sun to warm up and then be active.

Question 10

What are examples of INVERTEBRATES

Answer 10

• arthropods (= jointed limbs, such as insects, arachnids, crustaceans)
• sponges
• molluscs (clams, oysters, mussels)

Question 11

Is INVERTEBRATES a formal scientific classification?

Answer 11

Nope. Actually, the term INVERTEBRATES doesn’t correspond to a formal taxonomic group of animals in the way mammals or birds or reptiles do. Instead, the term invertebrate provides scientists with an informal way of referring to a wide variety of animal groups that share a single common characteristic: the lack of a backbone or bony skeleton. Simply put, invertebrates include all animal species that are not vertebrates.