Diversity of Life

Classification is the grouping of things according to internal and external characteristics

The science of classifying organisms is known as taxonomy

Aristotle grouped animals according to the way they moved ◦Walk◦Fly◦Swim

HUGE problem since birds and bees were classified in the same group!

Developed by LinnaeusTwo-name systemEach organism has a genus and a species name

First name (genus); second name (species)

Combination of the genus and species name of an organism

Scientific names of organisms are always italicized or underlined: (Genus is capitalized & species name is lower-case)

DomainKingdomPhylumClass

OrderFamilyGenusSpecies

D id K ing P hillip C ome O ver F or G ood S oup

Domain

◦Bacteria – (prokaryotic) no nucleus Unicellular Reproduce asexually by diving in two

Come in 3 basic shapes rod, round and spiral

Examples: strep, E. coli, salmonella

Archaea – (prokaryotic) no nucleus

◦Unicellular◦Different from any other form of life chemically

◦Can live in extreme conditions Thermophiles (heat) Halophiles (salt) Methanogens (methane)

Eukarya – (eukaryotic) has nucleus◦ Unicellular (protists and some fungi)◦ Multicellular (plants, animals and some fungi)◦ Have a nucleus Contain 4 kingdoms each with different

characteristics Protista Animalia Plantae Fungi

Unicellular or very simple multicellular Can be:

◦ Plant-like – autotrophs (producer) diatoms, algae, volvox, euglena

◦ Animal-like – heterotrophs (consumer) Ameba, paramecium, euglena Based on locomotion

Cilia –little hairs (ciliates like the paramecium)

flagellum(a) – whip like tail (flagellates like the euglena)

pseudopod(s -ia) –false feet (sarcodines like the ameba)

◦ Fungus-like – saprotrophs (decomposer) slime mold

Multicellular Very DIVERSE Heterotrophs (consumers) Examples: ox, people, bear, goose,

octopus, narwhal, fish, birds, insects, spiders and MANY MORE

Multicellular Autotrophs (producers) Examples: trees, flowering, mosses,

water plants

Mostly multicellular except for yeast Saprotrophs (decomposers) 3 main groups:

◦ Mushrooms ◦ Molds ◦ Yeasts are unicellular (single-celled)

Can be harmful (cause diseases) or helpful (edible, used to make food and medicine)