Taxonomy- The Science of Classifying Organisms

There are many different organisms, and scientists needed a way to classify them. Carlos Linnaeus, an 18th century scientist, came up with a system called binomial nomenclature, which means a "two name system." The two names were Genus and Species. Other scientists would later update the system to include more categories such as Kingdom, Phylum, Class, Order and
Family.
Taxonomy is the science of classifying organisms. The largest category is called the Kingdom, and this is broken down into a smaller group called a Phylum. Class is smaller than a Phylum, and so on. There are five major kingdoms used to classify living organisms:

1. Animalia: made up of animals, i.e. ants, frogs, horses, humans
   
2. Plantae: made up of plants which are organisms that can use photosynthesis to make their own food, i.e. trees, grass, cacti, algae
   
3. Fungi: feed on dead organisms, help the decaying or decomposing process of these organisms, i.e. mushrooms, mold
   
4. Protista: one-celled organisms that have a nucleus, i.e. Amoeba, Protists, Euglena
   
5. Monera: one-celled organisms that do not have a nucleus, i.e. Eubacteria, Archaebacteria

Before scientists can classify an organism, they have to make sure that it is living. The guidelines for living things are:

• They reproduce
• They use and make energy
• They respond to the environment
• They adapt to their environment
• They grow

The Kingdom Animalia is made up of organisms from ants to bears and even includes humans.

The Kindgom Plantae consists of plants that are multicellular and able to make energy from the sun.

The Kindom Fungi consists of multicelluar organisms that do not make their own food. Most are decomposers that break down dead organisms. The most common fungus is a mushroom.

The Kingdom Protista consists of unicellular or single celled organisms, with a nucleus. Some can make their own food, but others do not. These organisms are so small that we have to use a microscope to see them.

The Kingdom Monera consists of organisms that are unicellular and do not have a nucleus. These organsims are called bacteria.

1. There are some nonliving things that can act like a living organism. These are not classified in the kingdoms of living organisms. An example of one of these organisms is virus. Even though it can reproduce inside a cell, why isn't virus considered a living organism?
2. What are the two major groups of bacteria?
3. How are the Genus and species names written according to binomial nomenclature?