Why is the system of classifying organisms still changing
How Are Organisms Classified? | Evolution | Biology | FuseSchool
from amoebas to artworks and fungus to
fruit trees what does it mean to
classify organisms why do we do it and
how is it done
classifying anything simply means to put
it into a group in terms of biological
classification organisms are classified
or grouped with other organisms that
they are most closely related to these
small groups are then classified
together into larger groups and so on
until we reached the top level of
classification which places organisms in
one of three biological domains archaea
bacteria and Eukarya when each organism
is classified in this way it allows
scientists to see the relationships
between different species and makes
sense of a hugely diverse array of life
modern systems of biological
classifications or taxonomy are based on
the work of a pioneering
eighteenth-century scientist called Carl
Linnaeus by studying hundreds of
organisms Linnaeus devised a method of
grouping them according to their shared
physical features those with similar
physical features could be classified
together the most similar organisms ie
those that could read together and
produce fertile offspring were
designated as belonging to the same
species and given a Latin species named
accordingly for example all domestic dog
breeds belong to the same species called
Canis lupus familiaris other members of
the dog family that are closely related
but not the same species will share the
higher group name the genus name but
have a different species name for
example the grey wolf
which is the closest relative to the
domestic dog is classified as Canis
lupus lupus by using this system we can
classify organisms according to their
shared evolutionary history the layest
also created higher and more inclusive
taxonomic categories that encompass an
increasingly broader range of organisms
the structure of Linnaeus's taxonomic
groups can be seen here you can make up
a little rhyme or acronym to remember
this such as Keith pond clean frogs get
sick by using this system of common
groupings we can develop diagrams
that showed the interrelatedness of
organisms based on the morphological
diversity for example this diagram of a
taxonomic tree shows that humans are
more closely related to chimpanzees than
they are to gorillas a common ancestor
is represented by each split in the
branches of the taxonomic tree how long
ago did humans and gorillas diverged
from an evolutionary perspective recent
advances in science including the
ability to categorize DNA sequences have
enabled scientists to accurately
determine how closely species are
related to each other this has led to
the revision of the original grouping
suggested by Linnaeus new organisms are
constantly being discovered and
relationships between organisms are
changing all the time so the importance
of a taxonomic study to modern science
cannot be underestimated
