Classification of Living organisms (Section A)

 Many students find it difficult to understand Biology as a science Subject.Immediately after the class I'll send you a write up on how you can overcome that.For today's class .....

We're going to consider.....

CLASSIFICATION OF LIVING ORGANISMS

As we all know that biology deals with the study of Life( Living Organisms). So we need to create a method of classifying them as this will help us study them better.️

We have more than 1.8 million kinds of Organisms,There are still many more to be discovered and described....

....

After 1.8 million kinds.I believe that some of you can still help with discovering and describing more sha,Till then.

So we just need to have a MEANINGFUL WAY of classifying, identifying and naming these Organisms. NOTE‼️

.......The present method of classification of Organisms is based on the work of ......

CAROLUS LINNAEUS

........ He was a swedish naturalist (1707-1778)

What's TAXONOMY or SYSTEMATICS?

....... The study of the general principles of classification is known as TAXONOMY or SYSTEMATICS. How do we describe the method of classification then;

How do biologists find a way for this classification.What did they do?

What they did was to look out for an important feature that are shared by a large variety of Organisms. I.e Organisms with certain important features in common are then put into one group.

HIERARCHY OF LIVING ORGANISMS

 K

   P

      C

          O

              F

                G

                    S

 KPCOFGS

This is the same thing as levels of classification of living Organisms

 K - Kingdom

P - Phylum

C - Class

O- Order

F - Family

G - Genus

S- Species

From here now

You'll notice that the highest Group is the KINGDOM while the Lowest Group is the SPECIES

 NOTE‼️‼️‼️

Highest Group - KINGDOM

Lowest Group - SPECIES

 As we go down the levels i.e starting from K to S; the variety of Organisms decreases

The kingdom of course has the highest level of Organisms

K for KINGDOM

The SPECIES is the smallest unit of classification

 S for SPECIES

We're familiar with the common names of living Organisms e.g 

Cow

.

Dog

.

Hen

.

Rat

.

Maize

.

Human beings

 Biologists however use a standard system to name living Organisms

 Each kind of living Organisms is given two names according to the biologists naming Systems

 These two names we called the...

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BINOMIAL NOMENCLATURE📌

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BINOMIAL NOMENCLATURE

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 Two names

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The first name is the genus name to which the Organisms belong

The second name is the name of the species to which it belong

 Maize plant (Zea Mays)

i.e

The genus to which maize belong is Zea

While the species to which it belong is Mays

Human beings - Homo sapiens

.

Elephant - Loxodonta africana

.

We stopped at the levels of classification of living organisms at the last class which was proposed by a Sweden naturalist named Carolus Linnaeus

KPCOFGS

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Hope you can remember this acronym

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Kingdom

Phylum

Class

Order

Family

Genus

Species

 So we aslo talked about the BINOMIAL NOMENCLATURE

 And it was stated that naming of Living organisms in Biology is based on the BINOMIAL NOMENCLATURE

I.e Generic Name(Genus)

Specific name(Species)

We need to understand each level or hierarchy of Living organisms; so then we need to take a concise look at each of them KPCOFGS

 Starting from K as Kingdom

As you can deduct from the hierarchy; You'll notice that the KINDGOM is the largest level or hierarchy and so has the largest number of living organisms

 Carolus Linnaeus divided the KINGDOM into two groups as;

.

1.✅Animalia

2.✅Plantae

This division has been developed by modern biologists and then we now have 5 divisions as;

1.✅Protists

2.✅Monera

3.✅Fungi

4.✅Plantae

5.✅Animalia

 Let's discuss each of this then

 What do you need about MONERAS

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False nuclei

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They are also called PROCARYOTES

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They have simple cells

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Microscopic in nature

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Examples of MONERAS include BACTERIA and BLUE GREEN ALGAE

What do you need to know about the PROTIST

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They are bigger than the MONERAS

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They have a complex cell Structure with definite nuclei

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Examples include CHLAMYDOMONAS and AMOEBA

  

What do you need to know about the FUNGI

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They are thread like structures

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Examples include mushrooms and slime mould

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They have numerous nuclei

What do you need to know about PLANTAE

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They have many cells and contains green pigment(Photosynthetic in nature)

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Examples include FERN, PINES, YAM, MOSSES e.t.c

 What do you need to know about ANIMALIA

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They have many cells and feed on other organisms

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Examples include; worms,insects,snails,fishes,frogs e.t.c