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Taxonomic Categories and Its Sequence

Classification is the process of grouping very similar organisms. Groups that show similarities are divided into larger groups. The different levels of grouping or ranking in a classification are called taxonomic categories.

Each category is called a classification or rank unit and is commonly referred to as a taxon. Taxa is a general term for grouping by systematic classification. A taxon is a group of similar genetically related individuals who share certain traits that differ from other groups. For example, all insects share some common characteristics that make them different from other groups, thus forming a classification.

Taxonomy is the field of biology that classifies all living things. Developed by the Swedish botanist Carolus Linnaeus, who lived in the 18th century, his classification system is still in use today. Linnaeus invented the Binomial nomenclature. This is a system for naming genus and species for each species of organism. He also developed the classification system said to be the taxonomic hierarchy. It has eight ranks today, from general to specific, domain, kingdom, gate, class, eye, family, genus, and species.

Category and Taxon

Categories are simply an abstract concept of rank or level. Taxa represent biological objects and are assigned to categories. For example, the bird taxon is Aves and the category is class. The sponge classification is peripheral and the category is phyla. When classifying organisms into specific taxa of, a basic understanding of the characteristics of each group is required.

Major Taxonomic Categories

Kingdom

Tribe

Class

Order

Family

Genus

Species

which can be memorized as lung plague by memorizing sentences. ‘Keep sports, clean family gets sick’.

The Taxonomic Hierarchy

A taxon (plural: taxon) is a group of organisms that are classified as one unit. This is specific or general. For example, all humans belong to the same species, so they are taxa at the species level, but humans all belong to the order of the species, so they are at the order level like all other primates. It can be said that it is a taxon of Primates. Species and order are both examples of classes, the relative levels of grouping of organisms in the taxonomic hierarchy. 

Domain

Domains are the highest (most common) level of living things. Linnaeus invented several taxonomic ranks, but not relatively new domain ranks. The term domain was not used until 1990, more than 250 years after Linnaeus developed the classification system in 1735. The three areas of life are archaea, bacteria and eukaryotes. Archaea are unicellular organisms such as bacteria. Some archaea live in extreme environments, while others live in mild environments. Eukaryotes, or creatures on Earth that are not bacteria or archaea, are more closely associated with the area of ​​archaea than bacteria.

Except for species, taxonomic ranks are always capitalized. This allows people to distinguish between bacteria (organisms, which may refer to all bacteria or only two specific bacteria) and bacteria (domains containing all bacteria).

Kingdom

Before the introduction of the domain, the highest class was the kingdom. In the past, different kingdoms were the animal kingdom, plants, fungi, protists, archaea, and bacteria (archaea and bacteria could be integrated into one kingdom, Monera). Some of these groups, B. However, protists are not very accurate. Protists include all eukaryotes that are not animals, plants, or fungi, but some of these organisms are not very closely related. There was no firm consensus on the classification of the kingdom, and some researchers abandoned it altogether. It is currently being revised further. In 2015, researchers proposed dividing protists into two new kingdoms, protozoa and chromista.

Phylum

The phylum (plural: phyla) is the next rank of the kingdom. It’s more specific than the kingdom, but less specific than the class. There are 35 phyla in the animal kingdom, including Chordata (all organisms with dorsal nerve cords), Porifera (sponge), and Arthropoda (arthropods). For Example- Porifera, Chordata, Arthropoda, etc.

Class

The class was the most common rank proposed by Linnaeus. Phyla was not known until the 19th century. There are 108 different classes in the animal world, including mammals (mammals), birds (birds), and reptiles (reptiles). The animal kingdom classes proposed by Linnaeus are similar to those used today, but Linnaeus botanical classes were based on attributes such as flower arrangement rather than relatives. Today’s botanical classes are different from those used by Linnaeus, and are not widely used in botany.

Order

The order is more specific than the class. Some of Linnaeus’ orders, such as Lepidoptera (butterfly and moth orders), are still in use today. There was an order for mammals in 1926, depending on how the organism is classified-the sources are different. Some orders for mammals are primates, whales (whales, dolphins, porpoises), carnivorous animals (large carnivorous / omnivorous animals), and chiropterans (bats).

Order

The family is also more specific. For example, some families of carnivores include felidae (cats), canidae (dogs, wolves, foxes), ursidae (bears), and Mephitidae (skunks). There are a total of 12 families in the order Carnivores.

Genus

Genus (plural: genera) is more specific than family. This is the first part of the scientific name of an organism using the binomial nomenclature. The second part is the name of the species. The scientific name of an organism is always written in italics, and the genus name is capitalized, but the species name is not. Genus and species are the only taxonomic ranks shown in italics. The scientific name for humans is Homo sapiens. Homo is a genus name and Sapiens is a species name. All other species of the genus Homo are extinct. There were also human ancestors, like Homo erectus. Others lived at the same time, were closely related, and mated with Homo sapiens, such as Neanderthals the Homo Neanderthalensis.

Species

Species are the most specific major taxonomic ranks. Species can be divided into subspecies, but not all species have multiple morphologies so distinct as they are called subspecies. There are an estimated 8.7 million species of organisms on Earth, most of which have not yet been discovered and classified. Each genus name is unique, but the same species name can be used for different organisms. For example, Ursus americanus is an American black bear and Bufo Americanus is an American toad. Species names are always in italics, but never in uppercase. It is the only taxonomic rank that is not capitalized. In scientific papers where species names are widely used, they are abbreviated using only the first letter of the genus name and the complete species name after the first full use. Homo sapiens is abbreviated as H. sapiens.

Conclusion

Animals and plants are classified into ranks or categories in a hierarchical structure based on their observable characteristics. Each category is called a taxon. Because each category is part of a taxonomic order, it is called a taxonomic category, and all categories together make up a taxonomic hierarchy. Organisms fall into general categories such as kingdom, phylum or department, class, order, family, genus, species.

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