I think this is too straight forward for GQ.
But I was never really taught the classification system for living things. Since I’m trying to read The Origin of Species* right now, having this bit of info would help.
But hey, a little help here?
Thanks
*Isn’t it strange that I usually hear people call it The Origin of The Species? It threw me for a second when I saw it on the shelf.
King Plays Chess On Fat Girls’ Stomachs. (Yeah, goofy.)
Kingdom
Phylum
Class
Order
Family
Genus
Species
With occasional subclasses, superorders, subspecies, varieties, hybrids, etc. to stir the pot. Nature doesn’t always like her classification all nice and neat.
But yeah, the basic structure is right.
King Philip Came Over From Germany Saturday.
That’s the mnemonic for the classical Linnaean taxonomic system, for animals. (There’s a couple of minor variations for plants.)
Kingdom, Phylum, Class, Order, Family, Genus, Species (and variety dividing up species)
Each can legitimately have sub-, infra-, and super- designations, so that three closely related families within an order can be included in a superfamily.
I would suggest learning this system first before tackling cladistics, which is in one way simpler and in another more complex. In cladistics, every natural grouping that includes all forms related to a given degree is a clade, and there are terms (e.g., “paraphyletic group” for things that aren’t clades).
To give the classic example, take the dog. He is Canis familiaris, and Chihuahuas and Great Danes are varieties of the species dog. Canis is the genus, and familiaris is the trivial name that specifies the species – “species name” is, necessarily, Genus name+trivial name, since trivial names may be used over and over again. There are probably a hundred European species with a trivial name of europaeus, ranging from rodents to birds to roundworms.
In genus Canis with the dog are the wolves, Canis lupus and Canis rufus, the dingo, the jackal, and the coyote, Canis latrans, probably along with a few other very-much-doglike species.
In family Canidae, along with the members of genus Canis, are the foxes, Vulpes and Urocyon, the fennec, the dhole, the oddball South American “wolves” and “foxes,” and a few other “dogs” in the broader sense.
Superfamily Canoidea includes the canids, the mustelids (weasels, skunks, wolverine, etc.), the procyonids (raccoon, panda, and their South American relatives), the bears, and perhaps a couple of other groups.
Suborder Fissipeda includes all the canoids, and also the cats, mongooses, civets, and hyenas.
Order Carnivora includes all the fissipeds and also the seals, sea lions, and walrus.
Infraclass Eutheria includes all the placental mammals, from elephants to aardvarks to manatees to apes to mice to shrews to bats – including the Carnivora.
Subclass Theria includes the placental mammals and also the marsupials.
Class Mammalia includes all the mammals: the therians, the duckbilled platypus, the echidnas, and a host of primitive extinct forms.
Superclass Tetrapoda includes all the land vertebrates: amphibians, reptiles, birds, and mammals.
Subphylum Vertebrata includes the tetrapods and all the varieties of fish.
Phylum Chordata includes the vertebrates and several groups of primitive related forms such as the lancelets and the salps.
And of course Kingdom Animalia includes the chordates, the molluscs, the arthropods, the annelid worms, the nematodes, the echinoderms, and all their friends and relations.
You can do the same sort of thing for any species, but taking the dog “up the line” indicates the tighter and broader groups of relationship inherent in the Linnaean hierarchy.
In my bio class, we used King Phillip Came Over For Good Soup, only since we were immature it was quickly changed to For Good Sex.
Keep Papers Coming Or Flunk General Science.
It’s the acronym thread!!
An acronym thread? You know the board discourages games like that.
Keep Pissing Cecil Off, For God’s Sake
What? No “Kings Pee Cautiously Over Fences Guarding Sheep” ?