GEN BIO 2 | Taxonomy

Linnaean Taxonomy

Carolus Linnaeus devised a way to organize life into hierarchical classification scheme that assigned a consistent, scientific name to each type of organisms

Linnaean System of Classification

1. Domain

2. Kingdom

3. Phylum

4. Class

5. Order

6. Family

7. Genus

8. Species

Taxonomy Pneumonic

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Taxonomic Levels

• The most inclusive level, or the domain, consists of archaea, bacteria, and eukarya.

• The domain is divided into kingdoms, a kingdom is divided into phylums, and so on.

• The more similar traits organisms share, the more taxonomic levels they share and the more closely related they are.

• While the traits are helpful for organization, they do not have any meaning in an evolutionary context.

Taxon

a group or organisms at any rank

Binomial Nomenclature

• The two-part of the scientific name, commonly called a binomial, was instituted in the 18th century by Linnaeus.

• The first name is the organism’s genus while the second name is the organism’s species.

• Only the first letter of the genus is capitalized.

• If it is typewritten, it must be italicized.

• If it is handwritten, it must be underlined.

Importance of Scientific Names

• As common names differ across the world, it gives a systematic and universal way to refer to them.

• Latin names are used because it is universally understood as it is a dead language and not dynamic.

Dichotomous Key

a method of identification wherein groups of organisms are divided into two categories repeatedly

Descriptive Representation

a series of pair statements laid out in a numbered sequence

Diagrammatic Representation

a branching flowchart