Systems of

classification
by
Mahevi Reshma
Dept. of Zoology
Dr. D.Y.Patil ACS Colege,
pimpri, Pune-18
 The term systematics is derived from the Latinised Greek word and ‘systema’ means
‘together’. The systematics partly overlap with taxonomy and originally used to describe the
system of classification prescribed by early biologists. Linnaeus applied the word
“Systematics” in the system of classification in his famous book ‘Systema Naturae’ published
in 1753. He did the remarkable work in the field of taxonomy & therefore he is often reffered
as ‘Father of Taxonomy’.
 C. G. Simpson (1961) considers that “Systematics is the scientific study of the kinds and
diversity of organisms and of any and all relationships among them”.
 The simpler definition by Ernst Mayr (1969), and Mayr and Ashlock (1991) is “Systematics
is the science of the diversity of organisms”. Christoffersen (1995) has defined systematics
as “the theory, principles and practice of identifying (discovering) systems, i.e., of
ordering the diversity of organisms (parts) into more general systems of taxa according
to the most general causal processes”.
 The systematics includes both taxonomy and evolution. Taxonomy includes classification and
nomenclature but inclines heavily on systematics for its concepts. So study of systematics
includes a much broader aspect that includes not only morphology and anatomy but also
genetics, molecular biology, behavioural aspects and evolutionary biology.
 The recent approach to the science of biology has added a new dimension to the science of
classification and the new systematics has emerged as a synthesis of progress in all the major
disciplines of Biology.
 Artificial Classification:
 It is adopted by Pliny, he classified the animals on the basis of their
flying ability i.e presence or absence of wings. The flying animals like
birds ,bats , butterflies placed together.
 It is based upon comparison of one or few characters without any
phylogenetic relationship.
 The earliest systems of classification which remained dominant from
300 B.C. up to about 1830 were artificial systems, which were based on
one or a few easily observable characters of plants, such as habit (trees,
shrubs, herbs, etc.) or floral characters (particularly the number of
stamens and carpels)
 Such types of classification using some arbitrary or at least easily
observable characters, often irrespective of their affinity, is called
artificial.
 The sexual system of Linnaeus is a good example of artificial
classification, which uses only one attribute i.e. the number of stamens
for grouping plants into 24 Classes as a result of which, various
unrelated taxa, which are not at all related but, similar in one respect
only, have been placed under the same Class.
 Bentham & Hooker proposed this system of classification.
 It is based on natural similarities & resemblance among the group of
organisms.
 Organisms shows close resemblance because they are descended from
a common ancestor.
 These systems of classifications are based upon overall resemblances,
mostly in gross morphology, thus, utilizing as many taxonomic
characters as possible, to group taxa.
 Charles Darwin’s proposed theory of evolution (1859) postulates that,
the present day plants have descended from those existing in the
ancient past, through a series of modifications in response to changing
environmental conditions, which means that all present day plants are
related to each other in one way or another.
 Thus, the closely related plants should naturally be grouped together.
This is called natural classification. Thus, larger the number of
characters shared by different taxa, the more closely related they are to
each other. This is the basis of modern classification.
 Proposed by Engler, Prantle & Hutchinson.
 It is based on evolutionary & genetic relationship of the
organisms.
 It gives clues to find out our ancestor,& is a
combination of natural & phylogenetic evidences.
 The classification systems proposed after Darwin’s
theory are mostly phylogenetic i.e. they use as many
taxonomic characters as possible in addition to the
phylogenetic (evolutionary) interpretations. These are
expressed in the form of phylogenetic trees or shrubs
showing presumed evolution of the groups.
 Taxon (Plural: Taxa.):
 The taxa are the groups of animals generally groups of species. The words insects, fishes,
birds, mammals in animals; algae, fungi, ferns, mosses, grasses, etc., in plants are the
groups of organisms. These are the concrete objects of classification. Any such group of
such population is called taxon.
 But in ordinary usage only the so called basic categories (genus, family, order, class,
phylum, kingdom), are treated as such groups. The super taxa at all levels are treated as
groups of the basic taxa (a superclass as a group of classes) and the sub taxa at all levels as
a subdivision of the basic taxa (a suborder as a section of the order).
 According to Simpson “A taxon is a group of real organisms recognised as a formal
unit at any level of a hierarchic classification.”
 According to Mayr, “A taxon is a taxonomic group of any rank that is sufficiently
distinct to be worthy of being assigned to a definite category.”

 Category:
 The group of animals are taxa. Each taxon is placed at some level in hierarchy. A category
designates rank or level in a hierarchic classification. It is a class, the members of which are
all the taxa assigned a given rank. A category can be higher or lower than some other one,
so we may speak of a higher category.
 The categories have names, but these are terms and not names in biological nomenclature.
They are kingdom, phylum, class and so on. It is an error to state “this animal belongs to
category Mammalia”, Mammalia is the name of taxon not of category.
 Since the number of animal and plant species is very large, it is not possible to either know
them individually by their names or to refer them in the literature. This necessitated
arranging them into categories and taxa of different grades. Then arranging these categories
and taxa in an ascending order so that a higher category includes one or more lower
categories and higher taxa include one or more lower taxa.
 Linnaeus was the first taxonomist to establish a definite hierarchy of taxonomic categories
recognized within the animal kingdom. These are kingdom, phylum, classes, order, family,
genus, species and varieties. The varieties, used by Linnaeus as an optional category of
various types of intraspecific variants, was eventually discarded or replaced by the species.
 These few categories sufficed to cope with small number of animals and plants known at
that time.

 However, as the number of known species increased and with it our knowledge of the
degrees of relationship of these species, the need arose for a more precise indication of the
taxonomic position of species and inserting additional ones among them.
 Most are formed by combining the original category names with the prefixes super or sub.
Thus, there are super order, super-families and subfamilies, etc. The most frequently used
additional new category name is perhaps the term tribe for a category between genus and
family.
 Vertebrate paleontologists also used in routine the category cohort between order and class.
Some authors used terms for additional subdivisions, such as cladus, legio, and sectio.
Some used infraclass below the subclass and infra-order below the suborder.
 The generally accepted categories are the following:
 Indicated in the parenthesis are the standardised endings for the names of tribes, subfamilies, families and
super-families. The systematic hierarchy or Linnaean hierarchy as it is commonly known, with its need for
arbitrary ranking has often been attacked as an unscientific system of classification.
 Species:
 Species is the most important category in the taxonomic hierarchy. It is the basic unit in
taxonomy and also in evolution. Its definition has long been one of the major problems
of taxonomy. Several definitions and aspects are discussed about the definition of
species.
 species refers to group of organisms ,that are closely resemble each other either because
they are are freely interbreed in nature, or they have descended from common ancestor.
 Two main definitions are given for species.
 These are as follows:
 Biological species:
 Biological species are usually defined as groups of actually or potentially interbreeding
natural populations, which are reproductively isolated from other such groups.
 Simpson has pointed out that all the definitions of animal species give us biological
species. He, therefore, prefers the name genetical species for this and cites also bio-
species. (It should be noted that populations do not interbreed, only individual animals
and plants interbreed).
 Genetical species:
 Genetical species are groups of interbreeding populations which are reproductively
isolated from each other. They are, thus, the same as biological species. For example, in
Homo sapiens, the sapiens is a species of Homo.
 The first highest category above the species level is genus, which is the
group of related species.
 The taxa placed in the genus category are the genera. These are groups
of species brought together by the taxonomists as evidenced by the fact
that generic name is a part of each name of each of the included
species.
 By the rule of binomial nomenclature a species cannot be named unless
it is assigned to a genus. A species in a genus usually have some
common characters ,also called co-related characters.
 The genus cannot properly be described as the next higher level above
the species, because it is common and always possible to use subgenera
between the genus and species, and to use also sections or other
informal categories.
 A pragmatic definition of the genus states, “A genus is a taxonomic
category containing a single species or a monophyletic group of
species, which is separated from other taxa of the same rank (other
genera) by a decided gap.” The genus Felis includes the golden cat
(Felis temincki) the fishing cat (Felis viverrina) and the leopard cat
(Felis bengalensis).
 Family:
 This is a taxonomic category containing one or more related genera and which is separated from other
related families by important and characteristic differences. The family Felidae which includes the lion,
the leopard, the tiger and all types of cats belonging to different genera. This family is distinctly
separate from the family Canidae which includes dogs and foxes.
 Order:
 The order is the basic category of what has been called the order group which includes also super-
orders, the suborders, the infra-orders and taxa at any other levels interpolated between super family and
infraclass. In many phyla, orders are very well known groups, but in some phyla they are less well
known than the classes, whereas classes do have a fairly evident uniformity throughout the animal
kingdom.
 The orders of vertebrates, for example, are scarcely comparable to families in insects and levels vary in
other groups. For example, the order Carnivora includes families Felidae and Canidae.
 Class:
 The class is the basic category of what has been called the class group which included also super classes
and infraclasses, as well as any others interpolated among these. In the animal kingdom as a whole, the
classes are undoubtedly the best known taxa, even the phyla being subject to more differences of the
opinion.
 A class is generally a subdivision of a phylum. For example, the order Carnivora includes the lion, the
cat, etc., are included in the class Mammalia.
 Phylum:
 The taxa placed in the phylum category are the phyla, subdivisions of the kingdom. They may be
assembled into super-phyla or subdivided into subphyla. The phylum Porifera includes three classes
such as Calcarea, Hexactinellida and Desmospongia.
 Kingdom:
 This is the highest taxonomic category. All animals are included in the animal kingdom and all plants
are included in the plant kingdom
 The importance of the term species in all fields of
biology is so immense that it deserves special
consideration. It has already been stated that individual
organisms which have many features in common and are
able to breed only amongst themselves are encompassed
by the term species.
 The definition of species is not restricted only to the
taxonomists. Nowadays the other fields of biology also
consider the species to a great extent. Cytologists,
geneticists, ecologists, biochemists and others have also
defined the species.
 Allopatric species:The species inhabiting different geographical areas.
 Eg. Indian lion (Panthera leo percica) & African lion ((Panthera leo lea).
 Sympatric species:
 Two or more species normally occupying in the same geographical areas, though they are segregate into different
distinct niche.
 Parapatric species: The species which have geographical ranges with a very narrow region of overlap.
 Eg. Flightless Australian grasshopper Morasa scurra & M. viatica.
 Morphospecies:
 “These are ones established by the morphological similarity regardless of other considerations” (Simpson).
 Biospecies and genetical species:
 A group of inter-breeding populations which are reproductively isolated from other such group.
 Sibling species:
 It is a term applied to pairs or groups of very similar and closely related species. Which are morphologically alike but
behaviorally or reproductively isolated from each other.
 Eg. Drosophilla persimilis & D.pseudo oobscura
 Cryptic species:
 A species which are alike on the basis of observed characters but genetically & sexually different. These species are
incapable if interbreeding but sibling are capable of interbreeding, but do not produce fertile hybrids.
 Endemic species:
 The species which are found in a particular region is endemic species.
 Eg. Darwinian finches found on Galapogas islands.
 Polytypic species:
 Polytypic species are those which consist of two or more subspecies.
 Monotypic species:
 Monotypic species consist of a single subspecies.
 Nomenclature is defined as the system of naming of plants, animals and other objects or
groups of plants, animals and other objects. Scientific names are the language of
taxonomists. When a taxonomist identifies and describes the natural group of animals, he
gives appropriate scientific names to the groups.
 Common names do not serve the purpose because a particular animal is known by different
names in different parts of the world. For example, the bird that we know as gauraiya in
India and Pakistan is known by different names in other countries, house sparrow in
England; Pardal in Spain; Musch in Holland; Suzune in Japan and so on.
 Moreover the common name may be used for different kinds of animals. For example, the
name kenchua is used both for the earthworm and Ascaris. On the other hand, a scientific
name is universally used for a particular species or particular group of animals. For
example, gauraiya or house sparrow is termed Passer domesticus by zoologists throughout
the world.
 To ensure that one scientific name stands for one particular kind of animal
everywhere and is the only name for that organism, the taxonomist must see the
following:
 (1) The name chosen for an animal has not been already given to some other animal or
plant.
 (2) The animals and plants have been described in such detail that another taxonomist can
determine from the description exactly the kind of animal to which the name has been
given.
 (3) The animal or plant has been duly placed in the system of classification establishing its
relationships.
 The system of naming organisms using a two-part Latinized
(or scientific) name that was devised by the Swedish botanist
Linnaeus (Carl Linné); it is also known as the Linnaean
system. The first part is the generic name (see genus), the
second is the specific epithet or name (see species). The
Latin name is usually printed in italics, starting with a capital
letter. For example, in the scientific name of the common
frog, Rana temporaria, Rana is the generic name and
temporaria the specific name. The name of the species may
be followed by an abbreviated form of the name of its
discoverer; for example, the common daisy is Bellis perennis
L. (for Linnaeus). There are several International Codes of
Taxonomic Nomenclature that lay down the rules for naming
organisms.
 This system of nomenclature is employed to name the subspecies. In
classification the subspecies is a category below the species. The
subspecies name is also a Latin or Latinised word and follows the name
of the species to which it belongs. For example, the specific name of
the house crow, which occurs throughout India, Pakistan, Myanmar and
Sri Lanka is Corvus splendens.
 The house crows of India and Pakistan, Myanmar and Sri Lanka differ
with each other in minute morphological features and are, thus,
separated as distinct subspecies. The Indian and Pakistani house crow
has been assigned the sub-specific name Corvus splendens splendens,
the Myanmarian house crow, Corvus splendens insolens and the Sri
Lankan house crow, Corvus splendens protegatus.
 The full scientific name of subspecies is, therefore, a trinomial
name consisting of three names: the names of genus, the species and
subspecies itself.
 In 1898, the International Congress of Zoology organised an International
Commission on Zoological Nomenclature to formulate a set of rules, which would
be binding for all taxonomical publications. The aim of International Code of
Nomenclature is to make the stability in naming the taxa, avoiding the use of names
which may cause error, ambiguity or confusion.
 The standardisation and legislation of nomenclatural practices are usually made at
International Botanical and Zoological Congresses. This is done in order to put the
nomenclature of the past in order and to provide guidelines for that of the future.
 A few commonly followed rules and recommendations which may be considered
as the essentials of a code of nomenclature are given below:
 1. The system of nomenclature adopted is the binomial system to indicate the
specific name and trinomial for sub-specific name.
 2. The name of the genus is a single word in a nominative singular and must begin
with a capital letter. The name of the species may be a single or compound word and
must begin with a small letter.
 3. The name of the author, who first publishes the name when describing it, should
follow the species name and should rarely be abbreviated and is printed in roman
type.
 4. The scientific names of animals and plants must be different.
 5. The names must be in Latin or Latinized form and are usually printed in italic
type.
 6. Within the animal and plant kingdom, no two genera can have the same name, and
within a genus, no two species can have the same name.
7. The generic or specific name first published is the only one recognised. All duplicate
names are synonyms.
8. When the name of the genus is not the one under which a species is placed by the
original author, or if the generic name is changed the original author’s name is written in
parenthesis.
9. The formation of family and subfamily names follow rules which are different in the
Zoological and Botanical Codes.
10. A name must retain its original spelling, obvious errors and misprints may be
corrected; diacritic marks are dropped.
11. A name may be based on any part of an animal or a plant, or on any stage of an
organism’s life history.
Recommendations:
To make new names the following suggestions are followed:
1. A name should be in Latin or easily converted into Latin form.
2. A name should not contain less than three and more than twelve letters.
3. A name should be easy to pronounce.
4. The name given should preferably describe some characteristics of the organism.
5. A name should not be derived from two languages.
6. A name should not be frivolous.
 Carolus Linnaeus(1758) divided all the living organisms into two kingdoms.

 1. Kingdom Plantae 2. Kingdom Animalia
 1. Kingdom Plantae:
 This kingdom includes bacteria(Prokaryotes), photosynthetic plants and non - photosynthetic fungi. The characteristic
features of this kingdom are:
 Plants have branches, asymmetrical body with green leaves. Plants are non motile and fixed in a place.
 During the day time plants more actively involve in photosynthesis than in respiration and hence take more of CO2 and
liberate O2 during night O2 is taken in and CO2 is liberated.
 They are autotrophic in their mode of nutrition since they synthesize their own food.
 Plants have growing points which have unlimited growth.
 Excretory system and nervous system are absent.
 Reserve food material is starch.
 Cells have a cell wall. Cells have a lager vacuole. Plant cells lack centrosome and they may have inorganic crystals.
 Reproduction takes place with help of agents such as air, water and insects. Asexual and vegetative method of reproduction
is also not uncommon.

 2. Kingdom Animalia
 This kingdom includes unicellular protozoans and multi-cellular animals or metazoans. They are characterized by
 Definite shape of the body and absence of branches.
 Ability to move from place to place.
 During day and night take in O2 and release CO2 i.e only respiration takes place and there is no photosynthesis.
 Holozoic mode of nutrition since no chlorophylls present and hence they are heterotrophs.
 Growth is limited in animals. Growth stops after attaining a particular size and age.
 Excretory system and nervous system are well developed.
 Reserve food material is glycogen.
 Lacks cell wall. They have small vacuoles. Centrosomes are present. Cells do not have inorganic crystals.
 Animals do not depend on any external agents for sexual reproduction. Regeneration of body parts and asexual
reproduction is found only in lower organisms.


 The two kingdom system of Classification proposed by Linnaeus has been in use for a long time.
But later it proved to be inadequate and unsatisfactory in view of new information and discoveries about the
lower forms of organisms. The following are the shortcomings of the two kingdom system of classification.
 Certain organisms share the characteristics of both plants and animals. eg. Euglena and Sponges. In Euglena,
some species have chlorophyll and are autotrophic like plants. However like animals they are dependent on an
external supply of vitamins B, and B12 which they cannot synthesize themselves. A few species of Euglena lack
chloroplasts and are therefore colourless and non-photosynthetic (heterotrophic). They have a saprotropic mode
of nutrition, carrying out extra-cellular digestion.
 Other colorless forms ingest small food particles and carryout intracellular digestion (holozoic nutrition). If
green species of Euglena are kept in darkness they lose their chloroplasts and become colourless and survive
saprotrophically. Chloroplasts return when the organisms are returned to light. Euglena is also characterized by
the presence of an animal pigment astaxanthin in the eye spot.
 Fungi are a group of organisms which have features of their own. They lack chlorophyll. They are heterotrophic
like animals. They are placed along with green plants.
 Many primitive organisms such as bacteria did not fit into either category and organisms like slime moulds are
amoeboid but form fruiting bodies similar to fungi.
 The status of virus whether they are living or non living is a point of debate even to -day.

For all these reasons the two hundred and fifty years old Linnaeus system of classifying organisms
into two rigid groups animals and plants is considered highly arbitrary and artificial.
 Five kingdom classification is proposed by R.H.Whittaker in 1969 to
replace the old two kingdom system of classification. The kingdom defined
by him were named as Monera, Protista, Fungi, Plantae, and Animalia.

Main Criteria used for this classification are

 1.complexity of cell structure
 2.complexity of the organisms body
 3. Mode of nutrients

 According to him the earliest living forms (progenote) produced

prokaryotic organisms or monerans. Monera gave rise to protists probably
through association of several types of primitive and advanced monerans.
Protists in tern gave rise to fungi, plants and animals.
 Kingdom — Monera: The kingdom of prokaryotes

It is the kingdom of all the prokaryotes and includes eubacteria, cyanobacteria (bluegreen algae) and
archebacteria.
The organisms are unicellular, colonial, mycelial and filamentous in form.
They lack true nuclei and other membrane bound organelles such as mitochondrion, chloroplast, Golgi
bodies, lysosomes etc. and DNA, which is the genetic material and is called nucleoid, is not found
associated with histone proteins; cell wall is often present but chemically made up material other than
cellulose.
Mode of nutrition varies from autotrophy to heterotrophy.
Sexual reproduction is absent and asexual reproduction may take place through fission, fragmentation,
budding and sporulation.

Kingdom — Protista: The kingdom of unicellular eukaryotes

It is a group of organisms differing widely with one another except that they all are simple and minute
eukaryotes(organisms with true nucleus in cells). It includes microalgae, protozoa and slime moulds.
 They contain typical eukaryotic cell organelles such as nucleus, mitochondria,ER,GC, plastids etc.
 They often bear flagella or cilia with 9+2 microtubular arrangement
Majority of them are unicellular but some may be colonial in form.
They contain true nuclei and membrane bound organelles; cell wall may or may not be present.
Nutrition is very diversified and may be autotrophic (via photosynthesis) or heterotrophic
(ingestion/absorption).
Asexual means of reproduction is common but when organisms reproduce sexually, embryo is not formed.
 Kingdom — Fungi: The kingdom of multicellular decomposers
It is the group of mostly multicellular or multinucleate achlorophyllous and spore producing eukaryotic organisms
and includes mildews, moulds, yeasts, morals, truffles, mushrooms, rusts etc.
The body of organisms is mycelial in form; cell wall is present and made up of chitin or cellulose.
Nutrition is absorptive heterotrophy where organism secretes digestive enzymes into the substrate and then absorbs
the digested food.
 They are also called as saprobes when they live on dead deccaying matters.
 Some are called as parasites when they assimilate tissue of plants & animals.
Asexual reproduction is primary mode of reduction and sexual reproduction causes formation of specialized spores.
 Moulds, puffballs, mushroom are the reproductive bodies of fungi.
They play the ecological role of decomposer.
 Yeast are the exceptional case of fungi, which involved in the process of fermentation & have unicellular body.
Although they resembles protists in being unicellular, but their mode of sexual reproduction indicates their
relationship with multicellular fungi.

Kingdom — Plantae: The kingdom of multicellular plants

It includes all coloured multicellular photosynthetic eukaryotic organisms commonly called as plants. The important
constituents are macroalgae (red, green,Brown), bryophytes, pteridophytes, gymnosperms and angiosperms.
Plant body is either thalloid (algae and some of bryophytes) or differentiated into
root, stem and leaves; nonmotile; Cell wall is present and it is chemically made up of cellulose.
Nutrition by: autotrophy (photosynthetic)
Both asexual and sexual reproductions occur. An embryo stage is present except in algal group.
They play the ecological role of producers.
 Some flowering plants have evolved into heterotrophic forms, living as partial parasites or full parasites on other
plants. Eg. Cuscuta
 Some insectivorous plants devlops a device to trap & digest the small animals eg. Venus flytrap, pitcher
plant , while some have devloped simbiotic relationship with certain nitrogen fixing bacteria or fungi.
Kingdom — Animalia: The kingdom of multicellular animals
It is a group of all macroscopic animals derived from zygote and includes sponges,
coelentrates, worms, annelids, arthopodes, mollusces, star fishes, fishes, amphibians,
reptiles, birds and mammals.
They are also called as metazoa.
Organisms are multicellular with higher degree of body organization where tissue
differentiation usually leads to specialized organ formation. Eukaryotic cell is without
cell wall and chlorophyll pigments.
They exhibit mobility, sensitivity to different stimuli and definite growth.
They reproduce primarily by sexual reproduction and embryo stage is usually present.
They play ecological role of consumer.
Some animal groups are parasitic live on or within the tissues of other metazoans or
plants
Some shows simbiotic association with photosynthetic protists.