Classification of Organisms
(S7L1.a)

Classification was the final thing we learned this year. It is the way scientists organize the living things on the planet. All organisms are given a two part scientific name along with their common name. Scientific names are written in italics. The first part is their genus (written with the first letter being capitalized), while the second part is their species, which is not capitalized (like the scientific name for humans: Homo sapiens).

Scientists also classify organisms into different kingdoms and domains. The 3 domain system uses eukarya, archaea, and bacteria. Eukarya is for eukaryotes, or organisms with more than 1 cell. They are usually very complex organisms. Archaea are bacteria that live in very unforgiving environments (such as in the Antarctic). Bacteria is your standard bacteria, the ones that live in your stomach, the ones that you colds, etc...

The 6 kingdom system uses animalia, plantae, fungi, protista, eubacteria, and archaebacteria. This is basically a more unorganized version of the 3 domain system. Animalia, plantae, fungi, and protists belong in the eukarya domain, while the kingdoms of archaeabacteria and eubacteria become their own domains (archaea and bacteria).

Organisms are also classified like this:
Domain, Kingdom, Phylum, Class, Order, Family, Genus, and Species. As you go down, the organisms become more and more in common.

Copyright: none of images are mine, I do not claim ownership of these images, I just found them on Google.