Kevin's Cards about the Classification of Living Things Flashcards
Class Definition
A taxonomic category representing a group of similar or closely related orders
Classification Definition
The process of dividing things into groups according to their characteristics
Domain Definition
The highest level of taxonomic category for organisms, above the traditional category of kingdom
Family Definition
A taxonomic category representing a group of similar or closely related genera
Genus Definition
(plural: genera) A taxonomic category representing a group of similar or closely related
species
Kingdom Definition
The second highest level of taxonomic category for organisms, under domains, and above phyla or
divisions
Order Definition
A taxonomic category representing a group of similarly or closely related families
Phylum Definition
A taxonomic category representing a group of similarly or closely related classes
Species Definition
A taxonomic category representing a group of individual organisms that resemble one another closely and are able to interbreed
Taxonomy Definition
The science of naming and classifying organisms based on their natural relationships
Who created the first widely accepted way of classifying living things
Swedish scientist named Carolus Linnaeus
What did Carolus Linnaeus do
Linnaeus classified each organism into several groups and devised the modern system of scientific names
What is Carolus Linnaeus known as
He is sometimes called the “father of taxonomy”
What is “The Language of Classification”
Latin
Before Carolus Linnaeus scientist did what
Before Linnaeus, scientists often gave long, confusing Latin names to plants and animals
What was Carolus Linnaeus’ system
In his system, a living thing is given a name made up of two Latin words
Which system was simpler
Carolus Linnaeus’ system
Why did Linnaeus use Latin terms
In his time most scientists, no matter what language they spoke, wrote their scholarly works in Latin. Latin follows a strict set of grammatical rules - an advantage for scientific use. With Latin as a shared scholarly language, a French or Spanish scientist could understand the writings of a Swedish scientist (Communication)
What is the order of the Classification System
Domain, Kingdom, Phylum, Class, Order, Family, Genus, Species
Where can you find the specific name of an animal
The second Latin name for each organism
Where can you find the genus of an animal
The first Latin name for each organism
Naming System Definition
A two-word name that describes a specific organism (Latin)
What do you call creative word ways to study
Mnemonic
What is Binominal Nomenclature
The system of nomenclature in which two terms are used to denote a species of living organism, the first one indicating the genus and the second the specific epithet
When writing an organisms Latin name what must you do
The first letter of the first word of the Latin name must be capitalized and the rest is lower case
What did scientists first think about organisms and kingdoms
They first thought that they only needed 2 kingdoms which were plants and animals
What changed scientists minds about 2 kingdoms
Advances in microscopes allowed closer study of individual cells, scientists discovered a more basic difference: the presence or absence of a cell nucleus, which divides life into eukaryotes (with a nucleus, like higher plants and animals) and prokaryotes (without a nucleus, like bacteria)
What was the main goal of Taxonomy at first
At first, the main goal of taxonomy was to name and classify organisms
What is now the main goal of Taxonomy. What changed the scientists minds
Scientists began to realize that life changes over time, taxonomy took on a new goal: describing the history of life
How was the classification system developed
In the past, the anatomy of existing organisms was compared to each other and to fossils of extinct organisms to find relationships
