This document is a classification key that can be used to identify different types of living things. It asks a series of yes or no questions about observable characteristics and uses the answers to direct the user down different paths in the classification system until a specific category is reached, such as mammal, bird, fish, amphibian, reptile, mollusk, insect, or arachnid. The key was created by Dr. Sardharwalla in July 2011 to aid in biological classification.

1. Classification Key
Does it move from one place to another?
Animal Plant Does it have flowers?
Does it have a back bone?
Flowering Non-Flowering
Vertebrate Invertebrate
Does it give birth to live babies? Has it got a shell?
Mammal Does it have feathers? Mollusc Has it got 6 legs?
Birds Does it have gills? Insect Arachnid
Fish Does it lay
eggs in water?
Amphibians Reptiles
Dr. Sardharwalla July 2011
No
Yes
NoYes
NoYes
NoYes
NoYes
NoYes
NoYes
No
Yes
NoYes