the branch of biology that

groups and names organisms

based on their different
characteristics
a useful tool in distinguishing
poisonous organisms from not
Important to the economy- as
new sources of lumber,
medicines & energy

Taxonomists- biologists
who study taxonomy
2

Systematics
the classification of
organisms in terms of their
natural relationships
More than 200 years ago,
organisms grouped
according to similarities.
Modern biologists consider
not only visible similarities,
but also similarities in
embryos, chromosomes,
proteins, and DNA

 Eastern

world- Shen Nung,

Emperor of China around
3000 BC- the legendary
emperor and the Father of
Chinese medicine and is
believed
to
have
introduced acupuncture
1500BC medicinal plants
were illustrated on wall
paintings in Egypt
The
Greeks and the
Romans

Greeks and Romans

Hippocrates
(460-377
BC)

enumerated types of animals, but there

is no useful classification in the
surviving fragments of their work
Aristotle (384-322 BC) was the father
of biological classification; devoted
himself in the study of zoology esp.
Marine organisms;
-plants classified as herbs, shrubs,
trees.
-animals
can
be
characterized
according to their way of living, their
actions, their habits, and their bodily
parts.
Aristotles thinking dominated animal
classification for the next 2000 yrs.
Nevertheless he did not attempt to
supply an orderly, fully consistent
classification of animals.

Hippocrates

Aristotle

Theophrastus (370-285 B.C.),

pupil of Aristotle and Plato,
created first artificial plant
groupings based on growth form
(De Historia Plantarum-480
species)
Dioscorides (40-90 AD) wrote
treatise on medicinal plants (De
Materia Medica-600 species)used in Medicine until 16th
century
Plinius- (23-79AD) Naturalis
Historia, a work of 160 volumesdescription of several plants and
Latin names; Father of Botanical
Latin
Greeks and Romans expanded
knowledge to other plant life

Theophrastus

Dioscorides

Plinius

 Scientific

stagnation
Dark/Middle

during
Ages
Development
of the
Doctrine
of
Signatures
-suggested that God
marked objects a sign
of
their
purpose;
signatures
Renaissance
brought
new studies of plants
by herbalists

Hepatica nobilis

Jakob Bohme,
Doctrine of
Signatures

Early Plant taxonomists

Plant classification experienced a great flowering
in the period from Cesalpino (1519-1603) to
Carolus Linnaeus (1707-1778)
Caesalpino
Caesalpino (1519-1603) the
first taxonomist; wrote De
plantis (1583) containing 1500
species; his classification was
based on growth habit together
with fruit and seed form as was
that of Theophrastus.
-2 Swiss Bros. Bauhin (1541-1631;
1560-1624) wrote Pinax Theatri
Botanici (1623) Pinax means
register, and work is a listing of 6000
species; they worked with synonyms
and recognized genera and species
as a major taxonomic levels
Gaspard Bauhin
Johann Bauhin
-

Early Plant taxonomists

Plant classification experienced a great flowering
in the period from Cesalpino (1519-1603) to
Carolus Linnaeus (1707-1778)
-John Ray (1627-1705)- established
species as the ultimate unit of
taxonomy;
published
Methodus
Plantarum Nova (1682) which contained
18000 plant species

Joseph Pitton de
Tournefort-

-Joseph Pitton de Tournefort (16561708)- constructed a botanical

classification that came to rule
botanical taxonomy until the time of
Linnaeus; published Institutiones Rei
Herbariae with 9000 species were
listed in 698 genera; his plant
classification was based on floral
characters

John Ray

Types of Classification
Downward Classification was the principle of
logical division, into two subordinated groups:
animals---with or without blood, animals with
blood ---hairy or not hairy, and so forth.
-this dominated until the
end of 18th century
-17th -18th century ---Animal
Taxonomy
made
little
conceptual progress thru
Willughby(1635-1672), on
birds; Reaumur (1683-1757)
on insects

Types of Classification
Upward classification
-this method consists of assembling species by
inspection into groups of similar or related species
and forming a hierarchy of higher taxa by again
grouping similar taxa of the next lower rank
Buffon (1749) : It would seem to me
that the only way to design an
instructive and natural method is to
group together things that resemble
each other and to separate things that
differ from each other.
This thought was systematically applied
by the botanist Adanson (1763) and was
practiced by nearly all post-Linnaean
zoologists, who delimited taxa by
inspection and through an evaluation of
numerous characters.

Carolus Linnaeus (1707-1778)

Global
flora
Species
Plantarum 1753 and Systema
Naturae 1758 global fauna
-He introduced in these books
a binary form of species
names called trivial names
for both plants and animals.
-for each species he created
an epithet that could be used
together with the genus name

 Carolus

Linnaeus (17071778) established uniform

naming
system
(1753+,
Species Plantarum)
Latinized
binomial names
descriptive of traits, ecology
or geography
Utilitarian, widely used
A system of all living things
and minerals 1735- Systema
Naturae.
Artificial classification based
on the sexual system;
stamens and pistils based on
number of flower parts
Porter (1967)

Carolus Linnaeus

Swedish naturalist who

proposed the binomial
nomenclature system to
identify species still used
today
Selected physical
characteristics based on
close relationships of
organisms

Plants: based on reproductive structures

Animals: based on traits/characteristics
14


1)
2)

Scientific Name:
Genus: 1st word: consist of closely related species
Species: 2nd word: consist of description of the species.
Each category represents a level of grouping from larger,
more general to smaller, more specific categories

Rules:
1)
2)
3)

Genus is always capitalized &

is written first
Species is always written in
lowercase & written after the
genus
Both are either italicized or
underlined!!!

Examples:

Homo sapiens sapiens

Canis familiaris
Pithecophaga jefferyi Ogilvie-Grant, 1896
Felis tigerus
F. leo
F. domestica
Felis sp.
Felis spp.

15

Scientific & Common Names

Many organisms have common
names that can be misleading.
do not tell you how organisms
are related or classified
a sea horse is a fish, not a
horse
it is even more confusing
when a species has more
than one common name.
All newly discovered species are
given Latin names.
16

A key made up of sets of numbered statements, each set deals

with a single characteristic of an organism, such as leaf shape or
arrangement

Test Yourself

Small and yellow

25 sentimo

Large size 1-inch diameter

5 piso

Small and silver

1 piso

Large size 1-inch diameter

10 piso

Identify this organism

 Species-smallest unit of
classification, a group of
organisms that is isolated
reproductively from similar
groups
Genus- a group of related
species
Family- a group of related
genus
Order- a group of related
families
Class- a group of related
orders
Phylum or Division- a group
of related class
Kingdom- a group of related
phyla
20

 Linnaeus

also introduced a system

For grouping species in increasingly broad

categories
Species

Panthera

Genus
Family

Phylum
Kingdom
Domain

Felidae
Carnivora

Order

Class

Panthera pardus

Mammalia
Chordata
Animalia
Animalia

Eukarya
Eukarya

Successors to Linnaeus System

Successors of Linnaeus expanded

cataloging of plants, as new ones
were found and other areas of the
globe were explored
Antoine-Laurent De Jussieu (17481836) created extensive artificial
scheme
relying
on
ovary
placement, stamen fusion, etc.
(1789,
Genera
Plantarum
Secundum Ordines Naturales
Disposita)
He
placed
monocots
first,
because they were simplest
He
divided
plants
into
acotyledons,
monocotyledons,
and dicotyledons and established
the family rank in between the
ranks genus and class

De Jussieus major groups

Porter (1967)

Successors to Linnaeus System

Artificial classification systems

based on a small number of
features
Subsequent botanists strived to
create natural classification
schemes using many features
Jean-Baptiste de Lamarck (17441829)- launched an evolutionary
theory including inheritance of
acquired
characters;
Lamarckism
Concept of evolutionchange in
traitsnot yet appreciated or
incorporated

Rules for Nomenclature

Augustin Pyramus de Candolle (1778-1841)made 1st attempts to create rules for botanical
taxonomy in Theory elementaire de la
botanique 1813
He stated that published names should have
priority according to the date of publication,
starting with Linnaeus
Congress on Paris, 100 botanist adopted the
rules in a book of Alphons de Candolle
(1806-1873), Lois de nomenclature adoptee
from 1867
During the yrs. of 1891 to 1898 German
botanist Otto Kuntze (1843-1907) published a
controversial
work
Revisio
generum
Plantarum, in which he applied Candolles
laws from 1867 rigidly. He changed 1000
generic names and 30 000 species names.

 Nomina

conservanda a list made of well

established names; conserved names
1907 American botanists created a
code of their own where they introduced
type specimens and allowed tautonyms
(identical names in a species name, now
allowed in zoology, e.g. Grus grus)
1935 European and American codes
merge into one international code of
botanical nomenclature (IBCN)

Rules for Nomenclature

In 1842 Hugh Edwin Strickland

(1811-1853) elaborated the 1st
nomenclatural laws for zoology;
Strickland Code-was accepted
among British and American
zoologists within 3 yrs.
1881- geological international
congress in Bologna modified the
code to make it applicable into
fossils; during the next 5 yrs. a
number of codes were suggested
1892- International Congress in
Moscow first accepted an
international code of zoological
nomenclature
1905 a modified code was
published

Linking Classification and Phylogeny

Systematists

depict evolutionary relationships

Species

Panthera

Orde
r

Family

Panthera
Mephitis
Canis
Canis
Lutra lutra
pardus
mephitis
familiaris
lupus
(European
(leopard)(striped skunk) otter)
(domestic dog) (wolf)

Genus

In branching phylogenetic trees

Felidae

Mephitis

Lutra

Mustelidae

Carnivora

Canis

Canidae

 Each

branch point

Represents the divergence of two species

Leopard

Domestic cat

Common ancestor

Phylogenetic Classification: Models

A classification system that shows the evolutionary

history and relationships of species
31

Determining evolutionary
relationships
Plant taxonomists use structural evidence to
classify dandelions and sunflowers under family,
Asteraceae by similarity in flower and fruit
structures. Evolutionary history then is inferred.

2. Geographical Distribution

Galapagos
Finches

Crushing
Bills

Probing
Bills
Parrot
Bills

Ancestral
Species

Graspin
g Bills
32

Determining evolutionary
relationships
Both the number and structure of chromosomes, as
seen during mitosis and meiosis, provide evidence
about relationships among species.

cauliflower, cabbage, kale, and broccoli look different

but have chromosomes that are almost identical in
structure.

Biologists propose that these plants are related.

33

 Charles

Darwin
(1809-1882) provided
concepts of
evolutionary change
through time
Subsequent botanists
incorporated these into
classifications
A different way to view
taxa groupings on an
evolutionary tree

Forerunners of Phylogenetic
Systems
Ernst Haeckel (18341919) and August Wilhelm
Eichler (1839-1878)
started construction of
evolutionary trees
Haeckel established the
term phylogeny
20th century was
dominated by extended
phenetics (looking for
similarities and
differences to create
systematic relationship)

Willi Hennig (1913-1976)

founded the cladistic era in 1966
by stating similarities grouping
species
(synapomorphies)
should be used in classification
and that taxa should include all
descendants from one single
ancestor (the rule of monophyly).
The new method on systematics
called
cladistics
was
controversial and took 20 yrs.
before it started to become
established.

Phylocode
Kevin de Queiroz and Jacques Gauthier in 1990s laid
theoretical foundation to a new nomenclatural code for
all organisms, the Phylocode.

1998- a meeting in Harvard drew

out the lines for a phylocode and
the first draft that was published on
the web in 2000.
Phylocode reflects a philosophical
shift from naming species and
subsequently classifying them to
naming both species and clades
The main idea is that only species
and clades should have names, and
that all ranks above species are
excluded from nomenclature