Classifying Living Things

Similarities and Differences

Among Organisms
 Classification
• Classification is the process of grouping
things based on their shared traits.

• Biologists use classification to organize

living things into groups, so that the
organisms are easier to study.

• The scientific study of how living things

are classified is called taxonomy.
 Living vs. Nonliving Things
Grow Respond Adapt
Object Cells Use Reproduce
And To To
Energy
Develop Stimuli Change

Nonliving No No Maybe No No No
Living Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes
Living Things
 Scientists have identified
and described about 1.5
million species of
organisms and are not
sure how many more
species remain to be
discovered.
 Living things vary in
shape, size, and other
characteristics…however
all living things share
certain similarities.
 Structure
 All living things are composed of cells.
 A cell is the basic unit of structure and
function in an organism.
 Unicellular (single celled)
 Multicellular (many cells)…specialized cells
(blood cell, skin cell, brain cell, etc…)
Growth and Development
 All living things grow
and develop.
 Some organisms show
very limited growth,
like bacteria, and
others change
completely through
metamorphosis.
 Some organisms hatch
from eggs and other
organisms are born
alive.
 Reproduction

 All living things

reproduce.

 Reproduction
involves passing
on hereditary
information to
their offspring.
 Response to Stimuli
 All living things respond to stimuli.
 A stimulus is anything that causes a response.
 Living things respond to various stimuli, including: light,
sound, touch, smell, and taste.
 Some living things have specialized structures to detect
stimuli and to respond to it.
 Some organisms respond slowly (plants w/sunlight) and
others respond quickly (hot stove).
Energy Use
 All living things use energy
to carry out functions such
as growth, development,
reproduction, and
responding to stimuli.
 In addition…living things
use energy to perform
functions such as digestion,
respiration, excretion, and
circulation.
 Not all organisms depend
on the same energy source.
 Plants = light energy
 Animals = take in nutrients
from plants, other animals,
or both
 Adapt to Change
 All species change themselves and adapt to change
around them over time.
 Organisms develop adaptations, or traits/behaviors,
that increase an organisms chance of survival.
 Not all adaptations follow the same pattern. Bacteria
that are resistant to antibiotics have changed over the
last 50 years, whereas the alligator has not changed in
the last 200 million years.
 Classification System
• Carolus Linnaeus is the Swedish
scientist who developed a
classification system based on the
organisms’ observable features; it’s
morphology.

• Linnaeus’s naming system is called

binomial nomenclature because each
organism is given a two part name.
 Binomial Nomenclature
• The first part of the organism’s name is its genus.
This is a classification grouping that contains
similar, closely related organisms.
• The second part of the organism’s name is its
species. A species is a group of similar organisms
that can mate and produce fertile offspring.
• These terms are unique and no other species can
have this same name. Scientific names are
designed to tell you something about an animal's
relationships with other animals.

Humans = Homo sapiens

 7 Levels of Classification
• Today’s classification
system uses several
levels to classify
organisms. The more
characteristics that
organisms have in
common, the more levels
they share.

• Kingdom
• Phylum
• Class
• Order
• Family
• Genus
• Species
5/6 Kingdoms of Organisms
 Bacteria (Monera)
 Archaebacteria

 Eubacteria

 Protists
 Fungi
 Plants
 Animals
 Recent Events

 Recently scientists
have proposed that
living things be
classified into even
larger groups called
domains.

 The three domains

would be: Bacteria,
Archaea, and Eukarya.