Classification

What is classification?
– Organising living things into groups:
• Anatomy
• Genetics

Horseshoe crab
Anatomically - looks like a crab
Genetically - more closely related
to spiders
 Classification

Why classify organisms?

Blue whale - MAMMAL

 Classification
Kingdom Animalia

• ~ 1.26 million animal species

• Vertebrates and invertebrates

Monarch butterfly
INVERTEBRATE
• ~ 1.2 million are invertebrates
(e.g. insects, crustaceans)

• ~ 60,000 are vertebrates

Great white shark

VERTEBRATE
 Classification

INVERTEBRATES
• No spinal column (also called backbone)
• No internal skeleton

VERTEBRATES
• Have a spinal column
• Have an internal skeleton Seven-spot ladybird
INVERTEBRATE

Vertebrates are divided into five groups:

• Fish
• Amphibians
• Reptiles
• Birds
• Mammals
Purple frog
VERTEBRATE
 The Vertebrates

Mammals
• Produce milk from
mammary glands to feed
young

• Maintain constant body

temperature (warm-
blooded)

• Covering of hair

• Give birth to live young

 The Vertebrates

Birds
• Maintain a constant body
temperature (warm-blooded)

• Reproduce by laying eggs

• Have feathers

• Most can fly

• Have a beak
 The Vertebrates

Reptiles

• Don’t regulate body

temperature (cold-blooded)

• Tough scaly skin

• Most lay eggs with leathery

shells
 The Vertebrates

Amphibians
• Don’t regulate body temperature
(cold-blooded)

• Lay eggs in water

• Life cycle involves transformation

from aquatic larvae to terrestrial
adult

• Can respire through porous skin

 The Vertebrates

Fish

• A collection of four distantly

related groups

• Breathe underwater using

internal gills for gas exchange

• Body covered with scales

• Most don’t regulate body

temperature (cold-blooded)