Taxonomy

By: BD Editors Reviewed by: BD Editors

Last Updated: April 28, 2017

Taxonomy Definition
Taxonomy is the branch of biology that classifies all living
things. It was developed by the Swedish botanist Carolus
Linnaeus, who lived during the 18th Century, and his system
of classification is still used today. Linnaeus invented
binomial nomenclature, the system of giving each type of
organism a genus and species name. He also developed a
classification system called the taxonomic hierarchy, which
today has eight ranks from general to specific: domain,
kingdom, phylum, class, order, family, genus, and species.

The Taxonomic Hierarchy

A taxon (plural: taxa) is a group of organisms that are
classified as a unit. This can be specific or general. For
example, we could say that all humans are a taxon at the
species level since they are all the same species, but we
could also say that humans along with all other primates
are a taxon at the order level, since they all belong to the
order Primates. Species and orders are both examples of
taxonomic ranks, which are relative levels of grouping
organisms in a taxonomic hierarchy. The following is a brief
description of the taxonomic ranks that make up the
taxonomic hierarchy.

Domain
 A domain is the highest (most general) rank of organisms.
Linnaeus did invent some of the taxonomic ranks, but he
did not invent the domain rank, which is relatively new. The
term domain wasn’t used until 1990, over 250 years after
Linnaeus developed his classification system in 1735. The
three domains of life are Bacteria, Archaea, and Eukaryota.
Archaea are single-celled organisms similar to bacteria;
some archaea live in extreme environments, but others live
in mild ones. Eukaryota, or every living thing on earth that
is not a bacterium or archaeon, is more closely related to
the domain Archaea than to Bacteria.

Taxonomic ranks are always capitalized, except for species.

This allows people to differentiate between bacteria (the
organisms; could refer to all bacteria or just two specific
bacteria) and Bacteria (the domain, which includes all
bacteria).

Kingdom
Before domains were introduced, kingdom was the highest
taxonomic rank. In the past, the different kingdoms were
Animalia, Plantae, Fungi, Protista, Archaea, and Bacteria
(Archaea and Bacteria were sometimes grouped into one
kingdom, Monera). However, some of these groupings, such
y were as Protista, are not very accurate. Protista includes all
eukaryotic organisms that are not animals, plants, or fungi,
but some of these organisms are not very closely related to
one another. There is no set agreement on the kingdom
classification, and some researchers have abandoned it
altogether. Currently, it continues to be revised; in 2015
researchers suggested splitting Protista into two new
kingdoms, Protozoa and Chromista.

Phylum
Phylum (plural: phyla) is the next rank after kingdom; it is
more specific than kingdom, but less specific than class.
There are 35 phyla in the kingdom Animalia, including
Chordata (all organisms with a dorsal nerve cord), Porifera
(sponges), and Arthropoda (arthropods).

Class
Class was the most general rank proposed by Linnaeus;
phyla were not introduced until the 19th Century. There are
108 different classes in the kingdom Animalia, including
Mammalia (mammals), Aves (birds), and Reptilia (reptiles),
among many others. The classes of Animalia that Linnaeus
proposed are similar to the ones used today, but Linnaeus’
classes of plants were based on attributes like the
arrangement of flowers rather than relatedness. Today’s
classes of plants are different than the ones Linnaeus used,
and classes are not frequently used in botany.

Order
Order is more specific than class. Some of Linnaeus’ orders
are still used today, such as Lepidoptera (the order of
butterflies and moths). There are between 19-26 orders of
Mammalia, depending on how organisms are classified—
sources differ. Some orders of Mammalia are Primates,
Cetaceans (whales, dolphins, and porpoises), Carnivora
(large carnivores/omnivores), and Chiroptera (bats).

Family
Family is, in turn, more specific. Some families in the order
Carnivora, for example, are Canidae (dogs, wolves, foxes),
Felidae (cats), Mephitidae (skunks), and Ursidae (bears).
There are 12 total families in the order Carnivora.
Genus
Genus (plural: genera) is even more specific than family. It
is the first part of an organism’s scientific name using
binomial nomenclature; the second part is the species
name. An organism’s scientific name is always italicized,
and the genus name is capitalized while the species name is
not. Genus and species are the only taxonomic ranks that
are italicized. The scientific name for humans is Homo
sapiens. Homo is the genus name, while sapiens is the
species name. All other species in the genus Homo are
extinct. Some were ancestral to humans, such as Homo
erectus. Others lived at the same time, were closely
related, and interbred with Homo sapiens, such as Homo
neanderthalensis, the Neanderthals.

Species
Species is the most specific major taxonomic rank; species
are sometimes divided into subspecies, but not all species
have multiple forms that are different enough to be called
subspecies. There are an estimated 8.7 million different
species of organisms on Earth, but the vast majority have
yet to be discovered and categorized. While each genus
name is unique, the same species names can be used for
different organisms. For example, Ursus americanus is the
American black bear, while Bufo americanus is the American
toad. The species name is always italicized, but never
capitalized. It is the only taxonomic rank that is not
capitalized. In scientific articles where the species name is
used many times, it is abbreviated after the first full use by
using just the first letter of the genus name along with the
full species name. Homo sapiens is abbreviated to H.
sapiens.
Examples of Taxonomy
The scientific classification of humans is as follows:

 Domain: Eukaryota
 Kingdom: Animalia
 Phylum: Chordata
 Class: Mammalia
 Order: Primates
 Family: Hominidae
 Genus: Homo
 Species: sapiens

Another example of taxonomy is the diagram below, which

shows the classification of the red fox, Vulpes vulpes
(sometimes the genus and species names are the same,
even though these are two different ranks).

Many mnemonic devices can be used to remember the

order of the taxonomic hierarchy, such as “Dear King Philip
Came Over For Good Spaghetti”.

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