Dichotomous Key / Taxonomy Worksheet

It is unreasonable to expect anyone to know the names of every living thing on Earth. To
then realize that each language has a different name for each organism makes it even
more difficult. To standardize the identification and naming of organisms, biologists have
devised a tool, called a dichotomous key, or just "key" to assist with this. A dichotomous
key involves the use of a series of paired, numbered statements. Each pair of statements
describes opposing characteristics. To use a key, read the first pair of statements next to
the number "1." They will describe a general characteristic of the organism you are
attempting to identify. Choose which one of the two statements best fits your organism
and follow along the line, to a number. That number will refer you to another set of paired
statements that will examine other characteristics of your organism. Your job, is to follow
along and continue choosing the statements that fits your organism, until instead of a
number, you are given a name. This will then tell you the name of the organism (or in
some cases, it will only give you the general name of that organism). Below, you will find
a the first few lines of a dichotomous key.
1a._External gills present .
.....__2__
1b._External gills present (fig. 3)__
.......__19_
2a._Gill slits (Fig. 3) 1 pair; eyelids absent [body wrinkled and flattened]
........Hellbender
2b._Gills slits (Fig. 3) absent; eyelids present ..
........___3__
3a._Nasolabial grooves (Fig. 4) present ....
__4___
3b._Nasolabial grooves absent_
__11__
If we were to follow this key further, it would identify all of the salamanders in Illinois.
Key taken from, "A Field Guide to Amphibians and Reptiles of Illinois," by Phillips, Brandon and Moll,
Illinois Natural History Survey, 1999

Create your own dichotomous key

Create a dichotomous key to identify the people in your small group of 3-5 people. You
should have at least two-three different questions in order to name the members of your
group.
1a.____________________________________
_____
_____________________________________
1b.____________________________________
_____
2a.____________________________________
_____
_____________________________________
2b.____________________________________
_____
3a.____________________________________
_____
_____________________________________
3b.____________________________________
_____
4a.____________________________________
_____
_____________________________________
4b.____________________________________
_____
5a.____________________________________
_____
_____________________________________
5b.____________________________________
_____

6a.____________________________________
_____
_____________________________________
6b.____________________________________
_____

Taxonomy
Taxonomy is the process of naming organisms using a series of names. The ability to
name an organism serves two important purposes. First, it provides a standardized way of
referring to it. For example, in some parts of the country a crayfish is called a,
"Crawdad," a, "Lobster," and a, "Crab." Having a way to name it prevents
misunderstandings. In addition, knowing the entire classification of an organism tells us
something about it, even if you have never heard of the organism before. For example,
you may not know what a hellbender is. But, if you learn from its taxonomy that it is
class amphibian, then you know that at the very least, it is an amphibian.
The most general name for any organism is called the kingdom name. All organisms are
classified into one of the five kingdoms of living things. The kingdom Monera is made up
of bacteria, the kingdom Protista is made up of algae and protozoans, the kingdom Fungi
is made up of fungi, the kingdom Plantae is made up of plants and the kingdom Animalia
is made up of animals.
Each kingdom is split up into a number of different phyla (singular = phylum). For
instance, the kingdom animalia contains a wide variety of different animals. A sponge,
while still an animal, is very different from a zebra, which is very different from a
scorpion. Therefore, the kingdom animalia contains many different phyla, including the
phylum Porifera which is the phylum of sponges, the phylum chordata which includes
those animals with spinal cords, and the phylum arthropoda which makes up those
animals with a hard exoskeleton.
Each phylum is divided up into many classes. Each Class is divided up into orders. Each
order is divided up into families, each family is divided up into genera (genus = singular).
Each genus contains one or more species. The scientific name of an organism is its genus
and species name, which is written with the first letter of the genus name capitalized and
the whole thing either underlined or in italics.
Look at the list of organisms below.
organism #1

organism #2

organism 3

organism #4

organism #5

Kingdom

Animalia

Animalia

Animalia

Animalia

Plantae

Phylum

Chordata

Chordata

Chordata

Arthropoda

Anthophyta

Class

Mammalia

Mammalia

Mammalia

Insecta

Dicotyledones

Order

Carnivora

Carnivora

Primates

Diptera

Fagales

Family

Canidae

Canidae

Hominidae

Culicidae

Fagaceae

Genus

Canis

Canis

Homo

Culex

Quercus

Species

familiaris

lupus

sapiens

pipiens

rubra

Unless you are a biologist, you probably can't recognize all of the organisms based on
their scientific name alone. However, you should be able to make some generalizations
based on what you know about their taxonomic levels. In particular, the more levels of
classification that two or more organisms share, the more similar they will be.
For instance, two of the organisms above should be more alike than the others. Which
two are they?
Since organisms 1 and 2 share the most classification levels, they can be assumed to be
the most alike. When you know that organism #1 is the domestic dog and organism #2 is
the wolf, this is more obvious.
How similar are the wolf and the dog to organisms 3,4 and 5? Since the dog and wolf
share the same class as organism #3, they would be more like #3. Actually, all three are
mammals which means that are warm blooded, have hair and feed milk to their offspring.
However, there wouldn't be as many similarities as there would be between the wolf and
the dog. Organism #3 is the scientific name for humans and organism #4 is a type of
mosquito. Wouldn't dogs be more similar to humans than mosquitoes?
Finally, all of the animals would be least like organism #5, the Red Oak tree. In this case,
the Oak is in a different kingdom than the others.
Adapted (in part) from the Biology 151 Independent Study Manual, from Joliet Junior College.*