What Are The 7 Classifications Of Animals

Introduction

This lesson explores the classification system used to identify animals. Most children are fascinated by animals and oftentimes take an animal that is a particular favorite, possibly even an fauna the child has never seen before. Children also like to gild and sort things, and this lesson melds both of these interests.

This lesson is specifically designed to move speedily beyond the cognition level to high-level thinking. This lesson can be taught to an entire classroom or given as a self-directed extension activity.

Learning Objectives
After completing the lessons in this unit, students volition be able to:

• Know and sympathise the seven levels of nomenclature.
• Employ that knowledge as they practice classifying animals.
• Evaluate and compare the classification of animals.
• Devise a classification system for the objects in their homes.
• Create a new species and allocate information technology according to the principles of nomenclature.

Preparation

• Print the lesson program on a color printer.
• Accept admission to the Net for student(s).
• Gather supplies including paper, pen or pencil, crayons, colored pencils and/or fine-tip markers.

Lesson 1: Beginnings

Look at the pictures of these animals, then fill in the nautical chart below: (Nosotros've given you an case.)

Cull the two animals from your chart that you call up are most like and justify your choice in one sentence.

Lesson 2: Organizing the animals — how it happened

Back in the 18th century, a Swedish man named Carolus Linnaeus thought information technology was important to organize living things, and he developed a system to do just that. He started out interested in plants, but he ended up ordering all life as he knew it. We however apply the essence of his arrangement today. Scientists are constantly refining the system based on new knowledge. Who knows? Maybe you will make a change in how animals are organized!

Putting animals in order like this is called taxonomy. The taxonomists — people who name animals — utilize a book chosen the International Lawmaking of Zoological Nomenclature, or ICZN, to tell them the rules for classifying animals.

Linnaeus's system has seven levels:

1. Kingdom
2. Phylum
3. Grade
4. Order
5. Family
6. Genus
7. Species

Every animal on the planet, down to the most microscopic creature you tin imagine, can exist classified according to this organisation. Y'all can call up the order the system comes in with ane of the following phrases. The first letter of each word is the first letter of the level of nomenclature. Pick the one you similar the best and practice saying it five times.

1000ing Phillip, come out, for goodness' due southake!
Thousanding penguins congregate on frozen ground due southometimes.
Keep ponds clean or frogs get southick.

Let's look at each level and an example using 1 common animate being.

These levels start out broadly — that means the top levels have the most animals, and they become narrower and narrower as you go down. So, by the time you get to the species, there is but one animal in the grouping. You lot tin can imagine these levels equally an upside-downwardly triangle.

Kingdom

Mostly, scientists concur in that location are half-dozen kingdoms. The animal kingdom (called Kingdom Animalia) is just one of those. In case y'all're interested, the others are Achaebacteria, Eubacteria, Protists, Fungi and Plants. Originally, Linnaeus only identified two kingdoms: plant and fauna. Some scientists recall that viruses should have their own kingdom, but currently they are not included under this system.

Phylum

Within the beast kingdom, the animals are divided into more than 30 phyla (which is the plural of "phylum"). You might be interested in Phylum Chordata — it's the one humans and all animals with backbones are in (do you run into how "chordata" looks like the give-and-take "string" — like spinal cord?). Phylum Arthropoda contains insects, spiders and other animals with segmented bodies, similar shrimp. Arthropods have their skeletons on the outside of their bodies (call up of the hard shell of a lobster) and other characteristics in mutual.

Class

The third level of classification is class. For instance, Phylum Chordata has classes in it similar birds, mammals (Mammalia) and reptiles.

Order

The next level, or rank, is guild. Orders are smaller groups inside the different classes. Lepidoptera is the order of moths and butterflies. Carnivora is the guild inside Mammalia that has the nigh diversity in animal size.

Family

The fifth rank of nomenclature is family. (When yous go to this rank, people sometimes disagree about which family unit an beast belongs to, then you may notice that different sources tell you different things. This tin can even happen with orders.) The family for dogs is Canidae.

Genus

This rank looks like "genius," doesn't it? It'due south the second-to-last rank, and a genus may have only one or two animals in it. If animals are in the same genus, they are really closely related. In fact, you may not be able to tell them apart just by looking at them! When nosotros write the proper name of the genus, nosotros capitalize it and italicize it. For example, the genus of dogs (and wolves, too!) is Canis.

Species

If animals can breed together successfully, they are a species. When an animal is called by its scientific proper name, and so that means it is being identified by its genus and species. We apply a lowercase letter of the alphabet and italics for the species. The scientific proper name of dogs is Canis familiaris; however, the scientific proper noun of wolves is Canis lupus.

Lesson 3: Using what you've learned

Look dorsum at your chart of the animals that y'all did in Lesson 1. Permit'south see how they fit into what we've just learned. Using that chart and the chart on the last folio of this lesson, answer the following questions:

1. Why exercise you call up we left Kingdom off of the chart? What kingdom does each of these animals belong to?
2. Look at the course of the Chilean flamingo. All birds belong to that course. Do you see why we call things to do with airplanes "aviation?" Using that same idea, and looking at the order of the bluish whale, can you make up a word that means "equally large as a whale?"
3. Do you lot agree or disagree with this argument? If two animals are the same genus, then they must too be the aforementioned family, order, class, phylum and kingdom. Why did yous make that choice?
4. Why do you think that we had to be more specific about the animals in this nautical chart? Why can't we just put "bear"? Why did we have to say "grizzly conduct?"
5. Whales actually have suborders depending on whether they take teeth or baleen (comblike sieves that allow h2o out but proceed their food in). Think virtually the proper noun of the kind of doc who puts braces on people'south teeth. At present think about the proper noun of the whale suborder Odontoceti. Do y'all retrieve these are whales with teeth or whales with baleen?
6. The family unit that horses vest to, Perissodactyla, means "odd toed." Call up about what a horse's hoof looks like. Tin you recollect of any other animals not on this nautical chart that might belong to that family unit?
7. Using the chart above, write the scientific names of the cow, the flamingo and the whale.
   • Cow
   • Chilean flamingo
   • Blue whale

Did y'all put the genus first with a capital? Good for you! When you lot see a species' name written, it volition be the genus and the species, and so the scientific name is sometimes just called "species." Sometimes the genus will just be listed as a majuscule letter with a period after information technology, like this: B. muscle.

Lesson four: Working with your favorite fauna

Become to the University of Michigan Museum of Zoology's Creature Diversity Spider web. In the search box, put in your favorite animal. Now write out its classification:

• Kingdom: _______________
• Phylum: _______________
• Class: _______________
• Society: _______________
• Family: _______________
• Genus: _______________
• Species: _______________

Look on the chart of animals in the previous lesson. Are there any animals on the chart in the aforementioned phylum equally your animal? Aforementioned class? Which brute do you think is the well-nigh closely related to your animal?

Go back to the website and effort to think of a few animals that would be very closely related to the outset animal you chose and classified above. For example, if you chose "tiger," try "lion" and "panther." How close tin can you get? Tin can you get down to the same family? How about genus?

What animal could you find that was closest to yours?

Lesson 5: Classifying your house

Information technology's not just animals that get organized. Think about the grocery store; is the cereal in the same area as the fruit? No, each type of food is in its ain space. You can easily tell how the grocery store classifies its items for sale by looking at the signs in a higher place the aisles.

At present retrieve about your house. Imagine that yous needed to classify every item in your house. 1 style would be to utilise the ideas that Linnaeus had — to offset out with broad categories and get narrower. Let's try it!

You are going to devise a seven-level system for classifying the things in your firm. If yous become confused at any time every bit you are doing this, y'all can await at the examples listed later in the lesson.

1. First, let'due south think nearly the broadest level. Is everything within your firm or practise you have some things exterior, too? Possibly your starting time level needs to exist the Kingdom Inside and the Kingdom Outside. If your family has other places that yous keep things you own (like a separate house or a storage unit), that might be a third kingdom. You lot may want to have kingdoms based on sides of the house or things for parents and things for kids. Listing your kingdoms.
2. Next, you lot need the adjacent level downwards, phylum. Call back about the things you take in one of your kingdoms. Tin can you think of a few categories you could divide them into? Y'all may want to choose phyla based on rooms (such every bit Phylum Living Room, Phylum Kitchen). You may want to cull phyla based on the items' size or what they are fabricated of. It's upwardly to yous. Choose simply one kingdom from your list to a higher place and create iii phyla for it on the next folio (think that phyla is the plural of phylum).
3. Pick one of the 3 phyla you created above and put it on the line below. Write the kingdom that phylum belongs to on the line next to Kingdom. Recollect about the phylum you picked. In your mind, break it downwards into some categories. For example, if your phyla were broken downwards by rooms, and y'all picked "Living Room" as your phylum, how could yous separate the things in your living room into categories? Could you break them down by what you do with them? How almost who uses them? How about what they are made of or where they are (wall, flooring, closet)? Don't try to make the categories besides pocket-size, because you take several levels left! These categories are your classes. Think of three classes and list them on the diagram below:
4. At present yous are going to repeat this until you get to species. After class comes order (remember your sentence!), so cull ane course from above, list in on the line below and create three orders to go underneath it. Just keep thinking nearly how you could narrow that group of things even more. Remember to look at the instance at the end of this department if you get stuck. List the kingdom and phylum, too, then yous can keep track.
5. You lot only have a few levels to go! Subsequently order comes family unit, so choose one of your orders from to a higher place and practise the same matter you've been doing. Break it down into smaller categories.
6. You merely have two levels left! You are near to a single item! Wow! Choose one family from your list above and and so break information technology down into 3 smaller groups. Retrieve that the adjacent level will be an private particular, so be sure to brand the genera (that's plural for more one genus) very narrow.
7. You are at the final step! You are down to private items! Cull a genus from your list above, and proper noun three dissimilar species, or items, inside that genus.
8. Now cull one of your species listed in a higher place and list its entire scientific classification from kingdom on down:

Examples

Expect here for ideas if you lot get dislocated. At that place is an example of how to interruption things down into smaller categories, and then there is an example of a scientific classification for an item. So that you don't get stuck trying to copy the case, we've used a school instead of a firm for the example.

Do y'all see how the groups get smaller and smaller, ending in a unmarried item? That is what you are trying to do.

Kingdom:	Classroom
Phylum:	Students' Supplies
Class:	Language Arts
Guild:	Reading Center
Family:	Books
Genus:	Chapter Books
Species:	"Tales of a Fourth Grade Nothing"

Here is an case of how 1 level could be broken down into several smaller categories. We'll employ the level family unit from above for our example. Notice how each genus is a smaller function of the family of Books.

Lesson half dozen: Create and classify your own animal

Imagine that you are a biologist studying animals in the wild. 1 day, while lying in your viewing spot, y'all encounter an fauna you have never seen before. You lot rush dorsum to your tent and look through your encyclopedia of animals, growing more than and more excited as yous realize that you have discovered a new species! Equally the discoverer of this new species, you get the honor of naming it. Of grade, being a fantastic scientist, you will follow the classification system in place. That ways that the only part of the animal'south name you lot will brand upwards yourself is the actual species name.

You go back to the Animal Diverseness Web to find the closest animate being you can discover to the one you discovered. For instance, if the animal you lot accept discovered looks a lot like a panther, look up "panther" on the website.

And so go a articulate film of your beast in your listen. Is it a mammal? a fish? a bird? This works best if you create an animal that is similar to your favorite animate being you chose earlier, but nevertheless slightly unlike. Draw a picture of your new animal.

List the beast's classification. Remember, its classification should be the aforementioned every bit the fauna you institute that is most the same equally this i. The only difference volition exist the species.

Wait at several other species within the genus then that y'all tin think of something that makes your animal slightly different than any other species in the genus. For case, information technology could be a dissimilar color or eat something different or live on a different continent.

What is your species' distinguishing characteristic?

Subsequently you have classified your animate being, including creating a species name, become back and label your picture with i matter from each level that is unique to that nomenclature. For example, if your animal is in phylum Chordata, draw a line to the animal's courage and write, "Phylum Chordata — backbone." Practice this for at to the lowest degree 4 levels. Wait back to the Creature Variety website you used before to search each of those levels. It will tell yous what characteristics are typical of that classification. Yous may likewise use an encyclopedia to help you.

See the example below.

Extension

Books on Animals

Considering animals nearly universally interest children, at that place are myriad books on them geared to young readers. Included here are a few high-quality volumes that are distinguished due to quality of illustration, comprehensiveness of material, interest to gifted learners or classic nature.

Nonfiction:

• Animal: The Definitive Visual Guide to the Globe's Wild animals by David Burnie
• National Geographic Encyclopedia of Animals past Karen McGhee
• The Encyclopedia of Animals: A Complete Visual Guide past George McKay
• A Life in the Wild: George Schaller'southward Struggle to Save the Last Great Beasts by Pamela Turner

Fiction:

• Mr. Popper'south Penguins by Richard Atwater
• The Dr. Dolittle series by Hugh Lofting
• Charlotte's Web, Stuart Fiddling and Trumpet of the Swan by E.B. White

Online Information:

• Strong readers may like these articles on issues in biodiversity.
• For students intrigued past these Latin names, bank check out the Pronunciation of Biological Latin, which explains Latin pronunciation.

Assessment

Answers to Lesson 3: Using what you've learned

1. Why exercise yous recollect we left "Kingdom" off of the chart? What kingdom does each of these animals belong to?
   Kingdom was left off because all animals belong to Kingdom Animalia.
2. Look at the grade of the Chilean flamingo. All birds belong to that grade. Exercise you lot see why we call things to do with airplanes "aviation?" Using that same idea, and looking at the lodge of the bluish whale, tin you brand up a word that means "every bit big equally a whale?"
   Answers volition vary, but should include at to the lowest degree the root of "cetacean."
3. Do yous concur or disagree with this statement? If two animals are the same genus, then they must also be the same family, lodge, course, phylum and kingdom. Why did y'all make that choice?
   Answers will vary, only the correct reply is "Agree." The classification system is top down, so if the animal is the same as another at a lower level, they must be in the same higher levels.
4. Why exercise you call back that nosotros had to be more than specific about the animals in this chart? Why can't we just put "deport?" Why did nosotros have to say "grizzly bear?"
   Once again, answers will vary, but the cardinal thought is that at that place is more than 1 species of bear.
5. Whales actually take suborders depending on whether they have teeth or baleen. Think about the name of the kind of doctor who puts braces on people's teeth. Now retrieve about the proper noun of the whale suborder Odontoceti. Do you remember these are whales with teeth or whales with baleen?
   Suborder Odontoceti are whales with teeth.
6. The family that horses belong to, Perissodactyla, means "odd toed." Think virtually what a equus caballus's hoof looks like. Can you remember of any other animals not on this nautical chart that might vest to that family?
   There are many possible answers, including zebras and rhinos. For more information on this gild, check out the Animal Variety Web.
7. Write the scientific names of the moo-cow, the flamingo and the whale.
   Cow: Bos taurus
   Chilean flamingo: Phoenicopterus chilensis
   Blueish whale: Balaenoptera musculus

Answers to Lesson iv: Working with your favorite animal

The correct classification will depend upon the animal chosen. Apply either the Beast Diversity Web or any encyclopedia to verify that the educatee has chosen the correct classification.

Rubric for Lesson five: Classifying your house

Rubric for Lesson half dozen: Creating your own brute

Source: https://www.mensaforkids.org/teach/lesson-plans/classifying-animals/

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