Name: _______________________________________________________Date: ____________
Biological Classification
1. In Biology, scientists group organisms into categories. Each ________________
category is then broken down into _____________ categories.
2. What is taxonomy?
3. Until the mid-1700’s, biologists would name an organism by giving it a descriptive
________________ which sometimes would have 12 or more Latin words.
These were called ____________________ meaning “many names.”
4. To make it easier, biologists decided to give each organism just a
____________________________________.
5. The language that is used to write scientific names is _____________________.
6. The two-part naming system is called __________________________________.
7. The scientists who came up with this system of naming was ________________.
8. The two-part name for a species is called its ____________________________.
9. The first word in the name is called the ________________________. A genus is
______________________________________ containing similar species.
10. The second work identifies one organism within the genus, this is called the
_____________________________.
11. A species is ________________________________________ in system of
classification.
12. When we classify an organism, we give it a ______________________ and a
______________________________ as its scientific name.
13. When we write an ________________________________________ name, the
genus is always ___________________ and ____________________ and the
species is written ______________________ and is ___________________
Example: Quercus rubra (red oak)
Name: _______________________________________________________Date: ____________
14. After the first use of the full scientific name, the genus name can be abbreviated
as a__________________________________________. For example, Querus
rubra can be abbreviated ________________________________________.
15. All organisms have ________________________________ scientific names.
16. What is the scientific name for humans?
17. Linnaeus classified plants and animals by their __________________________.
18. There are ____________ levels in which organisms can be classified.
19. The ____________________________ is the biggest group and everything else
is contained with it.
Name: _______________________________________________________Date: ____________
20. The second largest grouping is the _________________________ which contain
the class.
21. The __________________________________ contains the orders.
22. The __________________________________ contains the family.
23. The __________________________________ contains the genus.
24. The __________________________________ contains the species.
25. The _________________________________ level contains organisms that are
most closely related.
26. There can be remembered using a mnemonic device _____________________.
(K_______ P_______ C_____ O________ F_________ G________ S_______)
27. Which level is the MOST INCLUSIVE?
28. In the kingdoms, we have all different kinds of organisms. As we step it down to
the genus and species, the organisms become more ____________________
and more _________________________.
29. As we step from kingdom to species, the members within the same group have
____________________________________________ with EACH OTHER than
with organism in another group.
30. We have ____________ kingdoms of living things.
31. Scientist use differences in appearance and __________________________ to
group organisms.
32. Sometimes these structural differences cannot determine if two organisms are of
the ______________________________ _____________________________.
Name: _______________________________________________________Date: ____________
33. So, biologists define what makes something its own
__________________________ species.
34. Biological Species is a group of actual or potentially interbreeding populations
that are reproductively __________________________________ from other
groups.
35. This biological species concept works well for the Kingdom
_______________________ because there are many
____________________________ to reproduction between animals.