Essential Idea:
Species are named and classified
using an internationally agreed system
Understandings:
- The binomial system of names for species is universal among biologists and has been agreed and developed at a series of congresses
- When species are discovered they are given scientific names using the binomial system
- All organisms are classified into three domains
- Taxonomists classify species using a hierarchy of taxa
- The principal taxa for classifying eukaryotes are kingdom, phylum, class, order, family, genus and species
- In a natural classification, the genus and accompanying higher taxa consists of all the species that have evolved from one common ancestral species
- Taxonomists sometimes reclassify groups of species when new evidence shows that a previous taxon contains species that have evolved from different ancestral species
- Natural classifications help in identification of species and allow the prediction of characteristics shared by species within a group
Applications:
- Classification of one plant and one animal species from domain to species level
- Recognition features of bryophyta, filicinophyta, coniferophyta and angiospermophyta
- Recognition features of porifera, cnidaria, platyhelmintha, annelida, mollusca, arthropoda and chordata
- Recognition features of birds, mammals, amphibians, reptiles and fish
Skills
- Construction of dichotomous keys for use in identifying specimens