Packet 2
Pages 1-3
Scientists have discovered and named over ________________
different organisms, and the list continues to grow every day.
______________________ is a way of grouping things into
categories based upon their characteristics.
The science of classifying all living things is called
________________.

The way we classify organisms is based upon a system
developed over 200 years ago by Carolus Linnaeus.
According to his system, organisms are placed into groups
called _________. Linnaeus created 7 taxa:
•
Kingdom
• Phylum
 Class
• Order
• Family
 Genus
 Species
(_________________)
(__________________)
A large number of organisms belong to the same kingdom.
Fewer belong to the same phylum, and so on.

Species is the smallest, most ________________category. Organisms
of the same species are a group of genetically distinct organisms.
Two organisms in the same genus are quite similar
because they diverged (came from) a recent
common ancestor.
However, some form of selection in the past caused
them to separate into different groups or species.
American Black Bear
Grizzly Bear
Label
the
names
of the
missing
taxa on
the lines
Notice the diversity of the organisms that are in the same kingdom
as the grizzly bear.
• How many taxa do the fox & grizzly bear have in common? ____


If two organisms are in the same phylum, does that mean
that they must be in the same class?_____
Which animal in this diagram is most closely related to
the grizzly bear? _____________
As we learn more about the organisms around us,
the definition for a species has changed over time.
 If we have two organisms that look alike, how
do we know if organisms are the same species?
Scientists use several characteristics to
determine this.
1. Have a similar shape/structure (morphology).
Many species have great variation in their
appearances. Some examples include:
2. Are able to mate AND produce fertile offspring.
Two giraffes reproduce and give birth to a baby giraffe.
Once the giraffe matures, it will reproduce and have
babies of its own.
2. Are able to mate AND produce fertile offspring.
A _________ & a donkey have a similar appearance and
are both in the genus Equus.
When a horse is mated with a donkey, their offspring is a mule.
As it turns out, mules are sterile and can’t reproduce. That
means that these two animals must be ____________ species.
3. The organisms must be a natural population.
That means if the only time these animals might
be found together is in captivity, they would not
be the same species.

________ & _________ belong to the genus Panthera.
These animals can also mate and produce offspring called a
Liger or a Tigon (which are often sterile, meaning they too
can’t produce offspring).


Tigon =
Tiger (male) x
lion (female)
Liger =
Lion (male) x
Tiger (female)
While some common names refer only to one
specific species (i.e. Lion and Walrus) …
… Other times a common name can refer to many
different species (i.e. deer… there are 34 different
species of deer).
These names were made up of the last
two taxa:
(____________ + ____________ )
Each species is given a unique scientific name.
These names are in _______so they often sound
unusual to us.
The scientific name for humans is______________.
All humans are in the genus ________ and
species name __________.
Kingdom Animalia
 Phylum Chordata
 Class Mammali
Order Primate
 Family Hominidae
 Genus Homo
 Species sapiens.
1 – Based upon _____________ evidence, the classification
of some organism had to be changed. We are more
accurately able to tell how closely related organisms
are by comparing their _________ or ______________.
2 – A larger taxa (classification group) was added to the
system called _____________.
Organisms are placed into one of three domains based
upon the complexity of their cells
prokaryotes = no nucleus
eukaryotes = nucleus
Organisms in the same kingdom share several important
characteristics such as cell structure or how they obtain and use
energy (heterotrophs = eat autotrophs = make own food
Page 4
1. What is the scientific name of the grizzly bear?
_______ _______
(refer to the chart on page 1 of your notes).
2. What language is used to give scientific names to
all living things? __________
3. What is the genus of the red maple if its scientific
name is Acer rubrum? _________
4. The largest group in the current system of
classification is the __________ ; The ____________
is the smallest classification group.
5. Fill in the name of each missing taxonomic
category on the right in the chart below:
Taxon
Kingdom
Class
Family
Species
Green Frog
Animalia
Chordata
Amphibia
Anura
Ranidae
Rana
clamitans
Mountain Lion Domestic Dog
Animalia
Animalia
Chordata
Chordata
Mammalia
Mammalia
Carnivora
Carnivora
Felidae
Canidae
Felis
Canis
concolor
familiaris
Human
Animalia
Chordata
Mammalia
Primates
Hominidae
Homo
sapiens
6. Which taxon (category) includes the most specific characteristics? ___________
7. Which taxon above includes a larger number of species, an order or a phylum?
______________
8. What is the scientific name of the green frog? _____________________________
Taxon
Kingdom
Phylum
Class
Order
Family
Genus
Species
Green Frog
Animalia
Chordata
Amphibia
Anura
Ranidae
Rana
clamitans
Mountain Lion Domestic Dog
Animalia
Animalia
Chordata
Chordata
Mammalia
Mammalia
Carnivora
Carnivora
Felidae
Canidae
Felis
Canis
concolor
familiaris
Human
Animalia
Chordata
Mammalia
Primates
Hominidae
Homo
sapiens
6. Which taxon (category) includes the most specific characteristics? ___________
7. Which taxon above includes a larger number of species, an order or a phylum?
______________
8. What is the scientific name of the green frog? _____________________________
Taxon
Kingdom
Phylum
Class
Order
Family
Genus
Species
Green Frog
Animalia
Chordata
Amphibia
Anura
Ranidae
Rana
clamitans
Mountain Lion Domestic Dog
Animalia
Animalia
Chordata
Chordata
Mammalia
Mammalia
Carnivora
Carnivora
Felidae
Canidae
Felis
Canis
concolor
familiaris
Human
Animalia
Chordata
Mammalia
Primates
Hominidae
Homo
sapiens
9. Which taxa do all four organisms have in common? _______________________
10. Which two organisms in the chart are the most closely related? _____________
& ___________________; How many taxa do they have in common? ____________
11. Which animal is least closely related to the human? ____________________
Taxon
Kingdom
Phylum
Class
Order
Family
Genus
Species
Green Frog
Animalia
Chordata
Amphibia
Anura
Ranidae
Rana
clamitans
Mountain Lion Domestic Dog
Animalia
Animalia
Chordata
Chordata
Mammalia
Mammalia
Carnivora
Carnivora
Felidae
Canidae
Felis
Canis
concolor
familiaris
Human
Animalia
Chordata
Mammalia
Primates
Hominidae
Homo
sapiens
12. For two organisms to successfully mate (produce fertile offspring), they must
be the same ____________________
13. Which taxa is larger than a family, but smaller than a class? _________________
14. Since all of these organisms are in the animal kingdom, what is the name of the
domain that they are found in? _______________
1.
What do you call the study of how living
things are classified?
2.
List the levels of classification starting from
biggest to smallest.
3.
How many words are in every scientific name?
4.
What language are scientific names written in.
5.
Write the scientific name ACER RUBRUM in
the correct format.
6.
What is the word Acer?
7.
What is the word rubrum?
8.
What are the 3 characteristics that organisms
must have to be classified as the same species?
9.
What kingdom do humans belong in?
10.
When domain was added to the classification
system, animals were put into a domain with 3
other kingdoms because they all have ____.
11.
What information can scientists now use to more
accurately determine relatedness between
individuals?
12.
Who is Carolus Linnaeus?
Page 5
Cladogram (Phylogenetic trees) are used to show
how organisms & their ancestors evolved from
one another.



Organisms shown share a common ancestor (located at the bottom
of the tree/branches).
The simplest (most primitive) animals will be at the base of the
chart.
The most complex (or most highly evolved) will be at the top of
the chart (farthest from the base).
1. Which animal is the most primitive? _____________________________
2. Does the perch possess a lungs? _________________________________
3. What features are shared by the salamander & mouse?
___________________________________________________________
4. Why is the derived characteristic ‘feathers’ not written on the main
axis like all of the other characteristics?
___________________________________________________________
5. Which animals on the cladogram have limbs?
6. Which animal on the cladogram is the most complex?
7. What characteristic(s) is/are listed for the sponges?
8. What characteristics are shared by the lizard & the
earthworm?
Comparing the _________ and _______________
(which are made of amino acids) of different
species provides strong evidence for evolution.
Finding the number of differences in the genetic
information between different
species helps determine how
closely related two organisms
are.

In the cladogram on the left, the greater the
evolutionary distance from humans, the greater
the number of amino acid differences in the
hemoglobin protein (polypeptide).
Page 7
Dichotomous
White Elm
English Oak
No
Pointed
Five
Magnolia
Sweet
Gum
Barnacle and Crab
Tiny Free Swimming Larva
Latin
Genus
Species
Homo
sapiens
Taxonomy
Have a similar shape/structure
Be able to mate and produce fertile offspring
Must be a natural population
Archaea
Bacteria
Eukarya
Archaeabacteria
Eubacteria
Protista, Fungi, Plantae, Anamalia
Domain
Kingdom
Phylum
Class
Family
Genus
Species
Order
Dichotomous
Vertebrae
Lizards, Birds and Mammals