What is an Organism?

An organism is generally referred to any living thing. More specifically any thing that has cells. This includes the smallest of organisms, the single celled bacteria, all the way to the largest redwood tree or Blue Whale.

The Classification Game!!

Divide into groups of 3 or 4
In the following few slides, you will find 14 different organisms, each of them labeled with a letter. In your groups, write down two main classification (example red/green). Then place the corresponding letters under the correct classification.

For Example
These organisms have been classified by their color.

Green

Red

ARE

YOU

READY!

B A C D

One Possible Solution Plants

C
G
M

Animals
A

????

Did You Have Problems??

There were actually several different ways to go about classifying these 14 organisms. You might have done color, shape, size, number of legs the possibilities are endless. You might have encountered one or two that really did not fit into either of your two classifications, what should you do when this happens? Make a new classification of course! And this is what scientist have done as well through the years.

Our modern classification system originated with two main classifications, plants and animals. Over the years, scientist came up with certain plants that really did not act like plants, they couldnt make their own food. So the kingdom Fungi was formed.

When microscopes were invented, scientist discovered new single celled organisms. Some were animal-like, some were plant like and some were both. This lead to the creation of the Kingdom Protista.

As the microscope improved, scientist discovered that many of the single celled organisms were quite different. Some of them had a nucleus and others did not. This lead to the Kingdom Monera, the kingdom of the most simplistic organisms.

Who first developed a system to classify organisms?

As early as 350 B.C., the Greek Philosopher Aristotle created guidelines for grouping living things. Aristotle grouped organisms based on four characteristics: body parts, life histories, activities, and character. There were ten groups of animals, six of which he called blooded and four bloodless.

Humans, birds and fish were considered to be blooded, while insects and mollusks were considered to be bloodless. Aristotles system may seem crude by todays standards, but for his time, it was extremely imaginative.

Who Needs a Classification System?

When you go to the grocery store, how do know how to find the milk? When you go to the clothing store, how do you know where to look for your favorite brand?
When you go to the movie store, how do you find the movie youre looking for?

When you want to learn about the mating habits of the Blue Swallow Butterfly, where do you find your information.
It is for this reason that a classification system is necessary. It is a tool that allows scientist to study similar organisms to learn more about how certain organisms work and function.

For example; if you wanted to find information on a new organism that you just discovered, you could look at organisms with similar traits and could come up with some good ideas as to what it eats, mating habits, or any other pertinent information you might want to find.

Who developed the modern system?

Along with Aristotles version of the classification system, there were several more, completely different systems added throughout the years. After a while, it became quite confusing for many scientist when they did their research, they did not know which system to look in. This lead towards a universal system that could be used world wide.

The Modern System

The modern classification system was developed by the Swedish scientist Carolus Linnaeus in the mid 1700s. As Linnaeus created his method of classification, he considered many things. Some characteristics he used to classify organisms were outside appearance, internal organs, and how body systems worked. Modern scientists are still using most of Linnaeuss classification system.

Linnaeus used the Latin language because that was the language that was dominate around the world at that time. This is why even today organisms scientific names are always in Latin.

Along with the two major Kingdoms, Plant and Animal, Linnaeus came up with several sub-classifications for those kingdoms. They are: Kingdom, Phylum, Class, Order Family, Genus, and Species.
What Kingdom are you in?
What phylum are you in? Why?

The Human Species

Kingdom: Animalia (Animal in Latin) Phylum: Chordata (Spinal Cord) Class: Mammalia (have mammary glands) Order: Primates (two mammary glands) Family: Hominoidea (bipedalism) Genus: Homo Species: Sapien

When you refer to an organism scientifically, you always use the genus and the specie names. Therefore, the human species would be referred to as:
Homo sapien

Conclusion
The classification system for organisms have been around for a long time. It has endured several changes and is quite complex. Without it modern biology could not exist, much in the same way that a grocery store would go out of business if it did not have a classification system.