TAXONOMIC HIERARCHY

TAXONOMIC HIERARCHY

·  Taxonomic Hierarchy is the process of arranging various organisms into successive levels of the biological classification either in a decreasing or an increasing order from “kingdom to species” and “species to kingdom”.

·       All organisms can be grouped into a series of sub-divisions that make up the Taxonomic hierarchy.

·       Taxonomic Hierarchy is also called as Taxonomic Category or Taxonomic Rank.

·    Linnaeus provided a system that standardized the naming and classification of organisms based on characteristics they have in common.

ü  Similar organisms that can successfully interbreed into categories called Species (Lower level Taxonomic rank).

ü  Similar Species are grouped into Genera and similar genera into still larger taxonomic categories. 

ü  Genera sharing common features are grouped together to form Families

ü  Similar Families are grouped into Orders

ü  Orders are grouped into Classes

ü  Classes are grouped into Phyla

ü  Phyla are grouped into Kingdoms (Higher level Taxonomic rank)

ü  Related Kingdoms are grouped into Domain

Figure – 1: Taxonomic Hierarchy