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Taxonomy, Biology
- The traditional science and methodology of classifying organisisms based on physical similarities. Taxonomy is by far the most common method of organizing and classifying organisisms, but is criticized for not reflecting patterns of evolutionary relatedness. (A newer
field, cladistics, seeks to address this problem.) Taxonomists classify all organisms into a hierarcy, and give them standardized Latin names.
There are seven main levels of classification in the hierarchy:
- Kingdom
- Phylum
- Class
- Order
- Family
- Genus
- Species
Each level, called a taxon (plural = taxa,) includes all those below it. A given organism belongs to one species, which belongs to one genus,
which belongs to one family, and so on. Conversely, a genus can contain one or many species, a family can contain one or many genera, an
order can contain one or many families, etc. Scientists often use prefixes like "super-," "sub-," and "infra-" in front of a main taxonomic
level, thereby increasing the total number of levels.
Within a particular group of organisims, scientists usually try to give the same "Latinized" ending to the names of all groups at the same
taxonomic level. For example, all the Divisions of plants end in "-phyta," and Families of animals usually end in "-idae." This can be a helpful
clue as to which taxonomic level you are dealing with. One final tidbit. When referring to a particular species, it is correct to give both genus
and species together. The genus is capitalized, but the species is not. Both should be italicized or underlined. As an example, here is the
taxonomic classification for the grey wolf:
- Kingdom: Animalia
- Phylum: Chordata
- Sub-phylum: Vertebrata
- Class: Mammalia
- Order: Carnivora
- Family: Canidae
- Genus: Canis
- Species: Canis lupus
Thanks to wsmith@zool.umd.edu for this definition.
Testes-
Male reproductive glands which produce sperm.
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