WJEC GCSE Biology/Biology 1/Adaptation and Competition/Lesson 1:Classification

So, your first lesson, and you'll be pleased to know, it's a fairly basic and straightforward one to start us off. This lesson is all about the classification of species. By the end of this lesson, you will understand why species are categorised, and how they are categorised.

Introduction

The classification of species basically means how scientists sort the species into groups. For example, consider films. They are classified into different types (genres) e.g. Action, Horror, Comedy etc. This helps viewers find and choose a film that they think they would like. Classification helps scientists in the same ways, they can find a species which has the particular features that they are looking for.

Why have classification?

Classification is useful for several reasons. As I mentioned above, it makes it easier to find a species of animal that has the features you are looking for if animals are sorted into groups. Another role of the classification system is to create scientific names for creatures. I will demonstrate how this works further down the page. The reason why scientific names for creatures are useful is because they are universal to all languages. No matter what country you may be in, the scientific name for a human is always 'Homo Sapien'. This makes it easier for scientists to communicate.