Taxonomy

(kingdom, phylum, class, order, family, genus and species)

Kingdom

The second highest hierarchy level within biological classification; after domain. There isn't a consensus of the number of kingdoms, in the United States textbooks generally state that there are six kingdoms: Animalia, Plantae, Fungi, Protista,Archaea, and Bacteria. Most other countries state that there are five kingdoms: Animalia, Plantae, Fungi, Protoctista, and Prokaryota.

Phylum

The rank under kingdom and before class. Each kingdom has a set number of phyla. The organisms in a phylum are more similar than the one's in a kingdom, so similar that they most likely share a common ancestor.

Class

The rank under class and before order. Each phyla has a set number of classes. Organisms that are in the same class share even more characteristics than the ones in a phylum.

Order

IThe rank under class and before family. Each class has a set number of families. There are even less species in order than in class and they are closer related. To decide in which order an organism belongs, a taxonomy is used. It's basically a checklist that categorizes the organisms characteristics, the ones with certain characteristics are grouped together.

Family

Orders are split into families. The organisms in a family are related to each other since they share so many characteristics.

Genus

Families are split into genus. The genus of the organism actuallly becomes the first part of the name, the second part is the species.

Species

Species is the lowest and has the strictest criteria in the biological nomenclature hierarchy. In order to be the same species organisms need to be able to reproduce together. The species determines the second name of the two part name in latin. The final combination of the name is completely unique for each species although the first part (genus) is shared with other organisms the name of the species is what makes it unique.