PART 1

Artificial classification

In artificial classification, following features are considered.

1.Presence or absence of locomotive appendages of organisms

2.Habitats

Examples for artificial classification

Plants can be grouped as ornamental plants, herbal plants and
poisonous plants.

Animals can be grouped as animals with wings and without

wings.
There are many weaknesses in artificial
classification.
Does not depict the evolutionary relationships
among organisms.
Under the criteria of presence of wings in the above
example birds and insects both are included into a
single group.
But they belong to two groups when considering
evolutionary relationships.
Natural classification
A natural classification depicts the
evolutionary relationships among living
organisms.

In natural classification, morphological,

physiological. cytological and molecular
biological features of organisms are
considered.
Features of natural classification possesses.
1 . Explains the natural relationships among organisms
of the same species
2 . Explains the evolutionary relationships among
different organisms
E.g. Locomotive appendages - Fins of fish, Feathers of
birds, Legs of human
In a natural classification, organisms are grouped into taxonomic
levels in a hierarchy of categories.
Three Domain system of classification
The most appropriate system to classify organisms is the
natural classification.
1.Five kingdom classification system introduced by Robert
Whittaker in 1969.

2.Modern classification is the classification introduced by

Carl Woese in 1990 with three domains.
The 3 domains are,
1.Domain Archaea 2.Domain Bacteria
3.Domain Eukarya
Methanogens are microorganisms that produce
methane as a metabolic byproduct in hypoxic
conditions.
They are prokaryotic and belong to the domain of
archaea.
The halophiles, named after the Greek word for "salt-loving",
are extremophiles that thrive in high salt concentrations.

While most halophiles are classified into the domain Archaea,

there are also bacterial halophiles and some eukaryotic
species.
volcanoes, deserts, hot springs, ocean without an not sensitive to
beds, high saline environments and organized most
polar ice caps.
nucleus antibiotics