Animal Classification
Key Questions
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The animal kingdom is separated into nine taxonomic ranks: Life > Domain > Kingdom > Phylum > Class > Order > Family > Genus > Species. Though this is the true classification for animals, the first two ranks are often omitted, and on occasion, an extra one - subfamily- is added.
Take the lion, for example. Below is the animal classification for the lion:
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Mammalia
Order: Carnivora
Family: Felidae
Subfamily: Pantherinae
Genus: Panthera
Species: Panthera leoAnother example is the blue whale, whose animal classification is as follows:
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Mammalia
Order: Cetacea
Family: Balaenopteridae
Genus: Balaenoptera
Species: Balaenoptera musculus
Callum S.
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Oct 3 2014
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Animal classification is the categorizing of animals and organisms hierarchically.
The ranking system is based on a fixed number of levels such as kingdom, family, or genus. The order goes:
Animal classification is based on an organisms decent from a common ancestor. Accordingly, the most important traits for classification are those inherited from a common ancestor. An example would be birds and bats, which both can fly, but this characteristic is not used to classify them into a class because they did not inherit this from a common ancestor. Despite their differences, both bats and whales feed their offspring milk, therefor this feature is used to classify them both as mammals.
Examples:
Whale:
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Mammalia
Subclass: Eutheria
Order: CetaceaBat:
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Mammalia
Infraclass: Eutheria
Superorder: Laurasiatheria
Order: Chiroptera*Note the similarities in bat and whale classification.
Katie
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Jan 11 2015