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Taxonomy of Life

"" Learning objectives

By the end of this section, you will be able to do the following:

  • List the different levels of the taxonomic classification system
  • Describe how systematics and taxonomy relate to phylogeny
  • Discuss a phylogenetic tree’s components and purpose

 

This bee and Echinacea flower could not look more different, yet they are related, as are all living organisms on Earth. By following pathways of similarities and changes—both visible and genetic—scientists seek to map the evolutionary past of how life developed from single-celled organisms to the tremendous collection of creatures that have germinated, crawled, floated, swum, flown, and walked on this planet.

 

Illustrative only, a bee on flower
A bee’s life is very different from a flower’s, but the two organisms are related. Both are members of the domain Eukarya and have cells containing many similar organelles, genes, and proteins. Bee image, USDA – Lance Cheung via Flickr (Public Domain).

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The secret lives of cells Copyright © 2025 by Charles Sturt University is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License, except where otherwise noted.