Classification Flashcards
What is Carls Linnaeus known for?
He created the Linnaeus classification system that is still used today. He set up formal categories on the basis of shared morphological features, creating a hierarchy of increasing exclusiveness that extends from Kingdom to Species.
Over time, Scientists have expanded the system, adding levels such as domain and cohorts and subdividing others into infra-, super-, and sub- categories to accommodate our increasing knowledge of different animals.
Nomenclature
the universal language of taxonomy, each tax on has a unique two-word name, called a binomial, by combining the genus and species names. Binomial names can still be descriptive but, nice crucially, the unique name avoids confusion.
Ex.) Homo sapiens - all humans carry the generic name Homo, including fossil humans such as Homo habilis, but only modern humans are referred to Homo sapiens.
What are the 6 major categories in the Linnaean system?
Kingdom, Phylum, Class, Order, Family, Genus, Speices
Describe Phylogenetic Systematics (Cladistic) method of classification
Unites organisms in groups called clades on the basis of morphology (form and structure) and genetic characters. The system assumes that a character shared by a group of organisms but not by others indicated that they have a closer evolutionary relationship to each other and therefore a more recent ancestor in common.
Like the Linnaean system, this method is hierarchical, but unlike those created by Linnaeus, the groupings are used to construct taxonomic trees using evolutionary relationships.
