Classification of Living Things
NOTES
1. Taxonomy: The branch of science that deals with naming and classifying organisms.
A. Classification Vocabulary
2. Autotroph or Producer: an organism that makes its own food using sunlight energy and making glucose.
Also some bacteria make food by digesting minerals & chemicals.
3. Heterotroph or Consumer: an organism that cannot make its own food and must eat other organisms in order to get energy.
4. Decomposers: organisms that break down dead organisms into simpler substances, thereby
returning important materials to the soil and water.
5. Hosts: organisms that provide a home and/or food for a parasite.
6. Parasite: an organism that survives by living on or in a host organism and causes harm to that organism.
7. Symbiosis: interacting organisms in which at least one creature benefits.
8. Mutualism: a type of symbiosis in which both partners benefit from the relationship.
9. Sexual reproduction: two parents combine their genetic material to produce a new organism. Offspring are different from both parents.
10. Asexual reproduction: involves only one parent and produces offspring that are identical to the parent.
B. Groups or levels for classifying living things:
Domain
Kingdom
Phylum
Class
Order
Family
Genus
species
is a subgroup of
is a subgroup of
C. Writing the scientific name of a living thing using a word processor:
Genus name species name
(e.g. Homo sapiens)
D. If you write it by hand then underline:
Genus name species name
(e.g. Homo sapiens)
E. Three Domains of Living Things
Two are Prokaryotes (no nucleus). Both of these are single celled. They reproduce asexually:
1. Archaea: live in extreme environments. They are autotrophs that eat minerals for energy.
2. Bacteria: live in a variety of environments, but not extreme environments. They contain both autotroph & heterotroph versions.
Typical structureof a Bacterium cell:
General Bacteria Info:
Shapes:
1. Spherical-shaped
2. Spiral-shaped
3. Rod-shaped
4. Irregular-shaped
Spherical Shaped
Spiral-shaped
Rod-shaped
Irregular-shaped
Third Domain of Living Things
3. Eukarya: organisms with a nucleus (Eukaryotes). There are four kingdoms of Eukaryotes.
1. Protists: single cell organisms (e.g. amoeba, diatoms, and slime molds).
Three Types of Protists:
a) Animal-like: Heterotrophs - they eat other organisms for energy.
Amoeba
b) Plant-like: Autotrophs - they make their own food using the sun’s energy.
Diatoms
Brown Algae
Euglenoid
c) Fungus-like: Heterotrophs -they eat other organisms for
energy. They break large chemicals into smaller ones, therefore they are decomposers.
Slime mold Water mold
2. Fungi: unicellular to multicellular heterotrophs (includes yeasts, molds & mushrooms). Made of eukaryotic cells with a cell wall. They use spores to reproduce.
Three more kingdoms to discuss:
Fairy Ring Mushroom
3. Plants: unicellular to multicellular autotrophs (includes mosses, ferns and seed plants). Made of eukaryotic cells with a cell wall.
Plants & animals reproduce sexually. However, some creatures from each have both asexual & sexual life cycles.
4. Animals: multicellular heterotrophs (includes those with & without backbones). Made of eukaryotic cells.
