Classifying Organisms

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Introduction: Exam questions – terms! Copy 1

1. “Describe”
2. “Explain”

3. Describe: WHAT you SEE on the graph.

Use data.
2. Explain: WHY it is happening.
e.g. clouds, not enough
carbon dioxide, stomata closed
Characteristics / Features of living things: Copy 2

1. Nutrition/(Feeding):
Is the taking in of materials for energy, growth and development: plants require light, carbon dioxide, water and ions,
animals need organic compounds and ions and usually need water.
2. Respiration:
All organisms break down by chemical reactions glucose and other nutrient molecules inside their cells, to release
energy that they can use during metabolism (chemical reactions).
3. Movement:
All organisms are able to move to some extent changing position or place. Most animals can move their whole body
from place to place, and plants can slowly move parts.
4. Excretion:
Is the removal from organisms the waste products of metabolism, toxic materials, and substances in excess.
5. Growth:
Is a permanent increase in size and dry mass by an increase in cell number or cell size or both.
6. Reproduction:
Is the processes that make more of the same kind of organism.
7. Sensitivity/(Irritability):
All organisms have the ability to detect or sense stimuli in the internal or external environment and to make
appropriate responses.

What about us, are we living? What about a tree/ AND a robot dog ??? How to remember: MRS GREN
 Classification of living organisms: Copy 3

• Classification: Grouping of organisms according to structural similarities.

• Why we classify living organisms into groups:
1. It helps us to increase our understanding of the world by creating an organized system
based on grouping similar organisms together.
2. It makes it easier to identify and study. e.g. cat belong to lion, leopard, tiger, …

Carl Linnaeus *(1735) first person to attempt classification.

Using DNA to help with classification:
In past to classify we used morphology (form and shape
bodies) and anatomy (detailed/dissected body). Now
DNA in nucleus, in chromosomes. DNA made up of bases
A/C/G/T arranged in order, can compare sequence of bases
from two species. More similar – more closely related.
Similarities in sequence of amino acids in protein can also
be used. *(More in Year 11)
4
Groups into which organisms are divided in: Copy

• Kingdom: largest group. All living things - divided into FIVE Kingdoms.
1. Monera, 2. Protoctista, 3. Fungi, 4. Plants, 5. Animals
• Phylum
• Class
• Order
• Family
• Genus
• Species - lowest group.
Similar organisms, members can breed together and produce FERTILE
offsprings. E.g. humans belong to one species.
How to remember the groups: Easy to draw - Draw!
1. KINGDOM: Once there was a king.

2. PHYLUM: Physical strong.

3.
Class But he was in a coffin.
Order
Family

4. Filled with gas.

Genus
Species

The King Prefer Candy Over Fresh Green Salad

*Example Classifying the Zebra:
• Kingdom: Animalia
• Phylum: Chordate (with backbones)
• Class: Mammals (with fur)
• Order: Perissodactyla (hooves, Rhino + horses, …)
• Family: Equidal (horses, zebras)
• Genus: Equis (horses, zebras)
• Species: Burchelli (mountain zebra)
Binomial Naming System (by Carl Linnaeus) copy

• Means TWO names for each living organism / Is always in Latin

• First name genus/starts with a capital letter,
• Second name species/starts with small letter.
• Written both names underlined, in print/typed both names in Italic.
E.g. zebra - Equus burchelli
horse – Equus caballus
humans – Homo sapiens
IMPORTANCE:
1. Tells which organism belong to same group:
E.g. Panthera leo – lion/Panthera tigris – tiger
2. All can use no matter language/country!
Video 1.1.!! W/S – Rajesh TEST p.1-3
Lesson Objectives - read
1. State that all living organisms have cytoplasm, cell membrane and DNA as genetic
material as well as ribosomes for protein synthesis and enzymes involved in
respiration
2. List the main features used to place animals and plants into the five kingdoms:
Animal, Plant, Fungus, Prokaryote, Protoctista
3. State that viruses are simply a protein coat surrounding some genetic material
4. List the main features used to place organisms into groups within the plant
kingdom, from ferns to flowering plants (dicotyledons and monocotyledons)
5. List the main features used to place organisms into groups within the animal
kingdom:
o the main groups of vertebrates: mammals, birds, reptiles, amphibians, fish
o the main groups of arthropods: myriapods, insects, arachnids, crustaceans
Vertebrates: copy

Vertebrates all belong to a large group, or phylum, called Chordates.

They all have a stiffening rod that runs along the inside of the body. In
vertebrates, this rod has been replaced by a row of bones, the vertebral
column or back bone.
Monera Fungi Plants Protoctista Animals

Myriapods
 Class:
Examples
Vertebrates:
Table Fish / Pisces
Poikilo-
thermic
Poikilo, Larva
Amphibians: Have ear Lay soft jelly
MOIST, no in water – gills
Salamander Four legs with like - eggs in
scales on skin Adult on land -
Frog eardrums water
lungs
Reptile: Four legs, not
Lay soft Mostly on
Crocodile Hard scaly snakes, body Eardrums
leathery shell land, Poikilo-
Lizard/Snake DRY skin hang inside holes
eggs on land thermic
between legs
Front limbs Lay eggs with
Feathers, Eardrums Beak, Homio-
Birds / Aves wings, back hard shells
scales on legs inside holes thermic
limbs legs on land
Different
Mammals/ Young born
Eardrums teeth,
‘Mammalia’ alive –
Hair, Fur Four limbs inside holes Diaphragm,
Cat / Human vivipari, feed
with a pinna Placenta,
on milk
Homio…
Where do viruses/
bacteria and cells fit in??
Syllabus “Adaptations to the environment and
main features of:
• Viruses: Very, very small. *(50 -100 nanometer) 50x smaller than a bacterium.
copy

Outer coat = protein and inner coat – nucleic acid, the genetic material. Some
RNA/some DNA. Not made of cells, no cell membrane, no cytoplasm. Cannot
feed, respire, ….not even reproduce - unless inside a living cell. They get inside
cells and hijack the cells chemicals to reproduce for them. The cell is killed.

DRAW!

Draw – very simple!

KINGDOM: Monera – (Prokaryotes)Bacteria: copy

• Are everywhere, live in water, soil, ….,in YOU! Because they so small we
underestimate their importance. Important in recycling carbon and nitrogen,
making insulin, .. Can also cause diseases like (TB) Tuberculosis. They are single
cell/unicellular. They are very small, smaller than plant and animal cells. Like
plants and fungi, they have cell walls. They do not have a nucleus – Prokaryotes.
Reproduce by binary fission. *( Produce fast – double = 1 cell = 2 in 20 min, 2 = 4
in 40 min, 4 = 8 in 1 hour, … = 32 768 in 5 hours, ??? In 24 hours??)
DRAW very simple!
 KINGDOM: Fungi: copy

Like little plants - for a long time classified as plants. Mushrooms & Bread mould &
Athletes foot. Rooted and do not move, but have no root system only feeding
hypha. No chlorophyll – cannot photosynthesize. Feed on living things
(parasitically) or on dead organisms (saprotrophic). The main body is called
mycelium, made of hypha. Surrounded by a cell wall, not from cellulose like plant
cells. Many have chitin in cell walls (exoskeleton of insects). Reproduce by spores.
Yeast a strange fungus, no hyphae and no mycelium, lives as a single cell.

DRAW!!
NEW! KINGDOM: Protoctista: copy

• Mixture of organisms. Have cells with nucleus, but some have

chloroplasts and cellulose in cell walls, others have animal-like
features. Most unicellular. (Draw one of them!)

Chlamydomonas
Kingdom – Plants: copy

• Ferns:
Have leaves called fronds, no flowers, reproduce
by spores, have roots/rhizome (underground
stem), stems and leaves.

• Phylum: Flowering plant *(Angiosperms)

Main difference between plant and animals is
how they feed. Plants photosynthesize: [+3 =
CO₂ + H₂O + Sunlight, -2 = O₂ + glucose, in
chloroplast!) with chlorophyll that makes them
green. Plant cells have cell walls made of
cellulose, which animals never have. Inside the
flowers, seeds that develop. Reproduce
sexually. They have roots, stems and leaves.
They multicellular with nuclei.
 Kingdom – Plants – Class: give copied
• Class: Monocotyledonous (Monocots) and Dicotyledonous (Dicots)
Cotyledons: 1 2
Leaves veined : Parallel Branching/Network
Roots system: Branching Tap
Flower grouped: 3 4 or 5
Copy table and
complete:
Yes No

No, not
Yes No No
a cell

No No Yes Yes
No Yes Yes Yes

No No Yes Yes

No Yes-soil Yes Yes-Soil

No No No Yes
No No No Yes
PHYLUM: Arthropods: copy

Animals with jointed legs, no

backbones, waterproof exoskeleton,
largest number of species, segments.
• Class – Crustaceans: Crabs +
Lobsters, MORE than 4 pairs of
jointed legs, breathe through gills,
2 pairs of antennae, claws,
carnivores, reproduce by laying
eggs, most in wet places(aquatic).
• Class - Arachnids: Spiders + Ticks +
Scorpions, 4 pairs of jointed legs,
breathe through book lungs, simple
eyes, carnivores.
 Arthropods: copy

• Class – Insects: Locust + Fly, can live

in dry places, 3 pairs of jointed legs,
many 2 pairs of wings, breathe
through trachea, 3 body regions –
head/thorax/abdomen, mostly
herbivores and land living
(terrestrial).
• Class – Myriapods: Millipedes =
herbivores + Centipedes =
carnivores, fast moving, a pair of
legs on each segment, hairy, 1 pair
of antennae, simple eyes, body
consist of segments.
 Kingdom Animalia: copy

Do not photosynthesize or have chlorophyll, eat other

living organisms, no cell wall, feed heterotrophic.
• Phylum Annelida: Worms, ring- like segments, most live
in moist, no legs, have chaetae/bristles for movement,
no limbs.
• Phylum Mollusca: Snail with shells or slugs without
shells, soft unsegmented bodies, octopuses, two
openings.
• Phylum Nematodes: Round worms, slender,
unsegmented, no legs, no obvious head, some parasites
in plant/animals, other free living in soil or marine mud,
cause diseases in humans like hookworms.
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