Animal Classification, Phylogeny,

and Organization
Cladistics & Taxonomy

Animal Systematics

The goal of animal systematics is to arrange animals into groups that

reflect evolutionary relationships.

How might you group the animals in

the picture?

One way to group them is by using

phylogenetic systematics, otherwise
known as cladistics.

Phylogeny refers to the evolutionary

ancestry of animals; how they are
related to a common ancestor.

Cladistics uses the phylogeny of animals

to group them according to homologous
characters.

Character anything with a genetic basis that can

be measured, i.e., anatomy, morphology, or DNA
itself.

Cladistics

Cladistics focuses on monophyletic groups.

A monophyletic group refers to a single
ancestor species and all of its descendants.
Diagrams called cladograms are used to
represent the phylogeny of organisms.

Characters

Symplesiomorphy a homologous character

shared by all members of a monophyletic
group.
Synapomorphy a derived character that
has arisen after a symplesiomorphy visible in
a given outgroup. Groups that share a
certain synapomorphy are called a clade.

Cats are more similar to dogs than

they are to frogs, because they
share a more recent common
ancestor with dogs

Practice Cladogram

Construct a Cladogram

Gorilla

Chimpanzee

Tiger
Lizard
Fish

Tail Lost
Fur
Four Limbs

Cladogram Showing Vertebrate Phylogeny

Classification

Organisms can be classified according to

their relatedness to other organisms.
The accepted classifications among scientists
are called taxonomy.
Taxonomy is a hierarchical system. This
means that you start very general and get
more specific as you proceed down the list.
Example - The grocery store is set up the
same way!

11

Kingdom
Phylum
Class
Order
Family
Genus
Species

Current Biological Classifications

Kingdom
Phylum
Class
Order
Family
Genus
Species

King
Philip
Came
Over
For
Grape
Soda

Example: Human

Kingdom
Phylum
Class
Order
Family
Genus
Species

Animalia
Chordata
Mammalia
Primates
Hominidae
Homo
sapiens

Binomial Nomenclature

Bi 2
Nomen name
The first name is always the GENUS
The second name is always the SPECIES
Thus, our binomial nomenclature is homo
sapiens.
The binomial nomenclature of a house cat is
felis catus.
The binomial nomenclature of a killer whale is
orcinus orca.

Example: Dog

Kingdom
Phylum
Class
Order
Family
Genus
Species
Subspecies

Animalia
Chordata
Mammalia
Carnivora
Canidae
Canis
lupus
familiaris

The 5 Kingdoms

Kingdom:

Monera true bacteria and cyanobacteria

Protista eukaryotic, unicellular or colonial,
usually motile, microscopic in size (amoeba,
paramecium, etc.)
Plantae eukaryotic, multicellular,
photosynthetic, have cell walls, nonmotile
Fungi eukaryotic, multicellular, decomposer,
have cell walls, usually nonmotile
Animalia eukaryotic, multicellular,
heterotrophic, no cell walls, motile, specialized
tissues