Student #_______ Name:__________________________

Period:_______ Date:______________
Worksheet: Classification of Living Things

Directions: Complete the following sentences and answer the questions using your notes.
1. Before attempting to set up a classification system, you must know the ________________
of the classification being used.
2. A good classification system is ______________________. It places an item in only one
group—it is either in one group or the other.
3. What is taxonomy? _________________________________________________________
_________________________________________________________________________
4. What was the problem with the way Aristotle classified animals? ____________________
_________________________________________________________________________
_________________________________________________________________________
5. Name 3 physical characteristics that modern taxonomists use to classify living things.
a) ______________________ b) ______________________ c) _____________________
6. Taxonomists use an organism’s evolutionary history or ___________________________ to
determine what other organisms it is closely related to.
7. There are 8 taxonomic groups used for the classification of living things, starting with the
largest or broadest group, ______________________.
8. Into what smaller groups does “class” get broken down? ____________________________
9. What group gets broken down into “families”? ___________________________________
10. If an organism is prokaryotic and living in “normal” conditions, what domain would it be
placed into? _______________________________________________________________
11. If an organism is eukaryotic, many-celled, can move, and cannot make its own food but
must hunt or gather food, which kingdom would it be placed into? ____________________
12. What must organisms in the same species be able to do? ____________________________
_________________________________________________________________________
13. The more groups two organisms share the _____________________________ related they
are to each other.
14. What is the name of the family that humans are classified in? ____________________________