SYSTEMATICS: BASED ON

EVOLUTIONARY RELATIONSHIPS
Species of Organisms But..
1. Not all organisms fit into Aristotle’s 2 groups
•There are 13 billion known species of organisms (plants or animals)
•This is only 5% of all organisms that ever lived!
•New organisms are still being found and
identified

What is classification?
CLASSIFICATION
-is the arrangement of organisms into orderly Bacteria Mushroom
groups based on their similarities
2. Common names can be misleading
-also known as taxonomy

TAXONOMISTS
-scientists that identify and name organisms

TAXONOMY
-Branch of biology that names
and groups organisms
according to their:
•Characteristics
•Evolutionary history 3.Common names vary from place to place
Ex. puma, catamount, mountain lion, cougar
BENEFITS OF CLASSIFYING are all names for same animal

•Accurately & uniformly names organisms 4. Same organisms have different names in
•Prevents misnomers such as starfish & jellyfish different countries.
that aren't really fish Chipmunk
•Uses same language (Latin or some Greek) for Streifenhornchen (German)
all names Tamia (Italian)
•Latin names are understood by taxonomists. Ardilla listada(Spanish)

Early taxonomists Early taxonomists

•2000 years ago, Aristotle was the first taxonomist
•Aristotle divided organisms into plants & animals John Ray
•He subdivided them by their habitat---land,air, -a botanist,was the
water first to use Latin for
naming
-His names were very
long descriptions
telling everything
Carolus Linnaeus
-18th century taxonomist
-Classified organisms by
their structure
-Developed naming
system still used today
-Father of taxonomy
-Developed the modern
system of naming known
as binomial nomenclature
-Two-word name (Genus Rules for Naming Organisms
& species)
•The International Code for Binomial
BInomial Nomenclature Nomenclature contains the rules for naming
organisms
First name = GENUS NAME •All names must be approved by International
Always capitalized Naming Congresses (International Zoological
Second Name = SPECIES IDENTIFIER Congress)
Always lower case •This prevents duplicated names
Both names are underlined or written in ITALICS
Classification Groups
•Taxon (taxa-plural) is a category into which related
organisms are placed
•There is a hierarchy of groups (taxa) from broadest
to most specific
•Domain,Kingdom,Phylum, Class,
Order,Family,Genus,species
 DOMAINS PLANTAE
-multicellular
•Broadest,most inclusive taxon
-autotrophic
•Three domains
-absorb sunlight to make glucose-photosynthesis
•Archaea and Eubacteria are unicellular
-Cell walls made of cellulose
prokaryotes (no nucleus or membrane-bound
organelles) ANIMALIA
•Eukarya are more complex and have a nucleus -Multicellular
and membrane bound organelles -Ingestive heterotrophs (consume food &
digest it inside their bodies)
ARCHAEA -Feed on plants or animals
-probably the 1st cells to evolve
-live in harsh environments
Found in:
-sewage treatment plants
-thermal or volcanic vents
-hot springs or geysers that are acid
-very salty water (dead sea:great salt lake)

EUBACTERIA
-some may cause disease
-found in all habitats except harsh ones
-important decomposers for the environment
-Commercially important in making cottage
cheese,yogurt, buttermilk,etc.
-lives in the intestines of animals

Domain Eukarya is Divided into

Kingdoms…
Protista (protozoans, algae..)
Fungi (mushrooms, yeasts…)
Plantae (multicellular plants)
Animalia (multicellular animals)

PROTISTA
-most are unicellular
-some are multicellular
-some are autotrophic, while others are
heterotrophic
-aquatic

FUNGI
-multicellular, except yeast
-absorptive heterotrophs (digest food outside
their body & then absorb it)
-cell walls made of chitin
So what do we use now?
MODERN TAXONOMY
• Still use Linnaeus’s system but we have added
more kingdoms
•Charles Darwin and Jean-Baptiste Lamarck,
began to classify organisms not only on the basis of
morphological and behavioral characteristics.
•Organizes living things in the context of
EVOLUTIONARY RELATIONSHIP.

Evolutionary Classification
Biologists group organisms into categories that
represent line of evolutionary descent, or phylogeny,
not just physical similarities.

PHYLOGENY
-the study of evolutionary relationships among
organisms. It is represented by a phylogenetic
tree.

MODERN TAXONOMY
Scientists use different kinds of information to
classify organisms:
1.Fossil record
2.Morphology
3.Embryology
4.Chromosomes
CLASSIFICATION USING 5.Macromolecules (DNA & proteins)
6.Vestigial Structures
CLADOGRAMS
BASIS FOR MODERN TAXONOMY
One way of classifying organisms that shows phylogeny
is by using the clade. A clade is a group of organisms •Homologous structures(same structure,different
that includes an ancestor and all of its descendants. function)
•Similar embryo development
Modern evolutionary classification uses a method called
•Molecular Similarity in DNA, RNA,or amino
cladistic analysis to determine how clades are related to
acid sequence of Proteins
one another.

This information is used to link clades together into a 1. FOSSIL RECORD

cladogram, which illustrates how groups of organisms We can trace some changes over time through
are related to one another by showing how evolutionary the fossil record.
lines, or lineages, branched off from common ancestors.
 2. MORPHOLOGY
3. EMBRYOLOGY
HOMOLOGOUS characteristics: same Animals whose embryos develop in a similar
embryological origin (may have similar structure pattern may be related.
and function)
E.g. Bat wing & human arm
Homologous characteristics suggest a RECENT
COMMON ANCESTOR

HOMOLOGOUS STRUCTURES
Bat wing and human arm develop from same
embryonic structures

Similarities in Vertebrate Embryos

4. CHROMOSOMES

5. MICROMOLECULES
ANALOGOUS characteristics Compare molecules like PROTEINS and DNA
Organisms with similar sequences are probably
May have similar structure & function but
more closely related
different embryological origin E.g. Bird wing &
butterfly wing ANALOGOUS characteristics 6. Vestigial Structures
evolved separately Organisms NOT CLOSELY
RELATED
Evolutionary Thought
Development of Evolutionary Thoughts Timeline