Levels of Classification: locating the place where a person lives.

locating the place where a person lives. In the given example, you start with the name of the
country, the region where the person resides and the specific province in the region; the
The system of classification we use today was developed by a Swedish.It was municipality in the province; and so on until you finally get the street and house number of
Carolous Linnaeus, an English naturalist, who pioneered the science of classification or the person. In science, the same principle is followed to make things easier, because we
Taxonomy. His classification was mainly based on similarity of structure. are grouping not only hundreds or thousands of living organisms but millions of them!
In this system, each species is assigned a two-part name; for this reason, the system Scientists estimate that there are more than 3-20 million species on Earth. Only
is known as binomial nomenclature. The names are based in the universal language: Latin. about 1.5 million have been identified. These organisms are classified into six kingdoms
The first part of the scientific name is the genus, and it is always capitalized. (The plural is based on certain characteristics.
"genera"). The second part is the species epithet. The entire name is written in italics. Our
own species, for example, was given Homo sapiens (it means "man who is wise"). Characteristics of the Six Kingdoms of Life
Linnaeus' system gives each species a unique identity. The system also fulfilled a Kingdom
Major Characteristics
Cell Type Cell Structure Body Form Nutrition Examples
second need of humans: the need to classify things. Cell wall lacks Autotroph or Methanogens
Archaebacteria Prokaryote unicellular
There are seven major biological groupings or levels of classification that we follow. peptidoglycan heterotroph Halophiles
The kingdom is the largest group in the system of classification. This is divided into phyla in Eubacteria Prokaryote
Cell wall made up of
unicellular
Autotroph or Anabaena,
peptidoglycan heterotroph Mycobacterium
the animal kingdom. However, in plants this is equivalent to the division. Each division is With nucleus, Amoeba
Mostly unicellular, Autotroph or
divided into classes; these classes are divided into orders and orders into families, then Protista Eukaryote mitochondria, some
some multicellular heterotroph
Paramecium
have chloroplasts Algae
family into genera and so on down to the smallest unit, which is the species. With nucleus,
The species is the basic unit of classification. As you move from kingdom down to the Some unicellular,
mitochondria, no Yeasts, molds,
Fungi Eukaryote most are heterotroph
species level, classification becomes more specific. chloroplasts, cell wall
multicellular
mushrooms
made up of chitin
Originally, Carolus Linnaeus set up a two–kingdom system. The Plant and Animal With nucleus,
kingdoms. After his time, many more biologists reclassified living things into more than two Plantae Eukaryote
mitochondria,
Multicellular Autotroph
Mosses, ferns, pine
chloroplasts, cell wall trees, coconut palm
kingdoms. The six kingdoms are as follows: Kingdom Animalia, Plantae, Protista, Fungi, made up of cellulose
Achaebacteria and Eubacteria. With nucleus,
Animals are the multi-cellular, heterotrophic (using other living organisms for food) Animalia Eukaryote
mitochondria, without
Multicellular Heterotroph
Sponges, worms,
chloroplasts, no cell snails, insects
organisms without cell walls in their cells. wall
Plants on the other hand are the multi-cellular, photosynthetic organisms with cell
walls in their cell membranes.  binomial nomenclature: the scientific system of naming each species of organism with
Protists are organisms that exhibit both plant and animal characteristics. a Latinized name in two parts
The eubacteria and the archaebacteria composed of cells without a true nucleus
and mitochondria.  taxon: any of the taxonomic categories such as phylum or subspecies
Fungi are plant-like organisms without chloroplasts.  Linnaeus: Swedish botanist, physician and zoologist who laid the foundations for the
An easy way to understand the descending nature (largest to smallest) of scientific modern scheme of nomenclature; known as the “father of modern taxonomy”
grouping is to compare it with the general to specific information on where a person lives.

For example:

Country: Philippines Kingdom: Plantae

If you examine the analogy of classification to where a person lives, you will find out
that as you move from kingdom to species, things become more specific. It is just like