Learning Outcomes
Explain how relationships are indicated by the binomial naming system
Taxonomy (which literally means “arrangement law”) is the science of classifying organisms to construct internationally shared classification systems with each organism placed into more and more inclusive groupings. Think about how a grocery store is organized. One large space is divided into departments, such as produce, dairy, and meats. Then each department further divides into aisles, then each aisle into categories and brands, and then finally a single product. This organization from larger to smaller, more specific categories is called a hierarchical system.
In the eighteenth century, a scientist named Carl Linnaeus first proposed organizing the known species of organisms into a hierarchical taxonomy. In this system, species that are most similar to each other are put together within a grouping known as a genus. Furthermore, similar genera (the plural of genus) are put together within a family. This grouping continues until all organisms are collected together into groups at the highest level. The current taxonomic system now has eight levels in its hierarchy, from lowest to highest, they are: species, genus, family, order, class, phylum, kingdom, domain. Thus species are grouped within genera, genera are grouped within families, families are grouped within orders, and so on (Figure 1).
The kingdom Animalia stems from the Eukarya domain. For the common dog, the classification levels would be as shown in Figure 1. Therefore, the full name of an organism technically has eight terms. For the dog, it is: Eukarya, Animalia, Chordata, Mammalia, Carnivora, Canidae, Canis, and lupus. Notice that each name is capitalized except for species, and the genus and species names are italicized. Scientists generally refer to an organism only by its genus and species, which is its two-word scientific name, in what is called binomial nomenclature. Therefore, the scientific name of the dog is Canis lupus. The name at each level is also called a taxon. In other words, dogs are in order Carnivora. Carnivora is the name of the taxon at the order level; Canidae is the taxon at the family level, and so forth. Organisms also have a common name that people typically use, in this case, dog. Note that the dog is additionally a subspecies: the “familiaris” in Canis lupus familiaris. Subspecies are members of the same species that are capable of mating and reproducing viable offspring, but they are considered separate subspecies due to geographic or behavioral isolation or other factors.
Candela Citations
- Taxonomic hierarchy of the domestic dog. Authored by: Veronica Amaku. Provided by: Houston Community College. Located at: http://www.hccs.edu/. License: CC BY-SA: Attribution-ShareAlike
- Biology. Provided by: OpenStax CNX. Located at: http://cnx.org/contents/185cbf87-c72e-48f5-b51e-f14f21b5eabd@10.8. License: CC BY: Attribution. License Terms: Download for free at http://cnx.org/contents/185cbf87-c72e-48f5-b51e-f14f21b5eabd@10.8
- dog. Authored by: ccbarr. Located at: https://flic.kr/p/dAsmE. License: CC BY: Attribution
- Coyote. Authored by: Ariel Matzuk. Located at: https://flic.kr/p/7HfK28. License: CC BY: Attribution
- Fox. Authored by: Jans Canon. Located at: https://flic.kr/p/bw9swB. License: CC BY: Attribution
- Lion at Franklin Park Zoo in Boston. Authored by: Corey Leopold. Located at: https://flic.kr/p/4Zu4fA. License: Public Domain: No Known Copyright
- HUMAN WOMAN. Authored by: matt smith. Located at: https://flic.kr/p/cantD. License: CC BY-SA: Attribution-ShareAlike
- Coiled Snake. Authored by: Seattleye. Located at: https://flic.kr/p/4VK5ud. License: Public Domain: No Known Copyright
- Paramecium / Trichocysten - Opalblau. Authored by: Picturepest. Located at: https://flic.kr/p/dqbAxg. License: CC BY-SA: Attribution-ShareAlike
- Tree. Authored by: Sheila in Moonducks. Located at: https://flic.kr/p/8Jtz9Q. License: CC BY-SA: Attribution-ShareAlike
- Fungi. Authored by: Nick Bramhall. Located at: https://flic.kr/p/8KLrgq. License: CC BY-SA: Attribution-ShareAlike