Imagine you are in the deep, dark rainforests of far north Queensland.   Suddenly, a long slithery thing leaps out of the bushes and bites you on the leg!   What bit you?   A poisonous snake or a harmless lizard?   Will you die?

These are important questions that need to be answered!   You can find the answers if you know enough about classifying animals.  

So far in this unit, you have made careful observations so you can describe living things.   This enables you to group organisms on the basis of their similarities and differences.  

The result is a classification system .   Here is a diagram showing the steps involved in building a classification system.

A classification system is just a way that people classify things.   Different people and cultures have different classification systems.   Even within a culture, different classification systems are used for different purposes.   Biologists have agreed on a classification system for living things.

In this Part, you are going to investigate how animals are classified.   Classifying animals allows you to identify and name unknown animals.