Taxonomic Systems Taxonomy is how we cla**ify living beings. In order to make sense of things as big as the study of life, it's easier to create categories and sort things out that way. So it's no surprise that biological taxonomy is nothing new -- for as long as humans have interacted with other living creatures, we've been placing them into groups and naming their families based on differences and similarities.
But it wasn't until the Swedish botanist Carl Linnaeus came along that taxonomy got serious. He proposed seven taxa, or ranks, with which we can cla**ify and group organisms. Here they are, from least to most specific:
• Kingdom
• Phylum
• Cla**
• Order
• Family
• Genus
• Species
So a kingdom will have multiple phyla in it, and each phylum will have multiple cla**es, so on and so forth. Organisms that share a specific rank are more similar to each other than they are to those outside of that rank.
Over the years, biologists have gotten creative with how flexible this system is and created new taxonomic ranks above, below, and between these here. But if you memorize these seven, you'll be good. Splitting Hairs/Organisms What's the most fundamental way to cla**ify all of life? That is probably the most debated question in taxonomy. Linnaeus made it simple: at the end of the day, you're either animal or plant. As we discovered and learned more about different kinds of organisms, those two kingdoms wouldn't cut it. Where do you put mushrooms? And don't get me started on bacteria!
Towards the middle of the 20th century, scientists agreed, for the most part, on five kingdoms: Monera, Protista, Fungi, Platae, and Animalia. But recent advances in genetics changed everything. Now it's all up for debate again. Some say there are fundamental differences among bacteria, enough to warrant multiple kingdoms. Others believe we need to start speaking in terms of domains and empires to get on a more fundamental level. Here's an overview of the different systems proposed over the years.
With all these different systems, biologists can pick the one that suits them best (and hopefully come to a consensus eventually). But if you think we're anywhere near agreeing on how to cla**ify life, go talk to a virologist. Binomial Nomenclature Each species has a scientific name that comes from its taxonomic cla**ification. It's written in Latin, often italicized or underlined when used in longer texts, and constitutes of two words. The first word is the genus, and it is always capitalized; the last word completes the unique name of the species, and it is not capitalized. Phylogenetics and Cladistics