Types of AnimalsThere are at least 30 million species of plants, animals and micro-organisms living today. To enable scientists to understand and study all these species, a system of categories is used. The system categorizes organisms into a hierarchy of classes, orders, families, genera, and species based on shared physical characteristics. It was first established by Carolus Linnaeus in 1735, and is still used today. Scientific names are always in Latin, so that they do not change from country to country. By assigning each group of organisms to a category, they can then be uniquely characterized. Their membership in a group tells us about the traits they share with other members of that group, or what makes them unique from other groups. The names given to species don't just tell us what they are called, but also tell us about how they are related to each other. This helps scientists identify patterns in nature, and decide how to protect individual species. 1./ Within the Animal kingdom, there are six classes - Mammals, Birds, Amphibians, Fish, Insects, Worms and Reptiles. Mammals, members of the classthat includes humans, are the most highly advanced organisms on Earth. They are warm-blooded, hairy, have four-chambered hearts, relatively large brains, and they suckle their young. 2./Within the Class Mammals, there are 19 Orders:
3./ Within the Order Carnivora, there are 13 Families:
4./ Within each Family, animals are further classified into Genus, ie the Bear Family (Ursidae) contains Ursus, Tremarctos, Melursus, Helarctos and Ailuropoda. 5./ And finally, each genus is divided into Species:
The complete scientific listing for the Polar bear, for example, would be: Class Mammals, Order Carnivores, Family Ursidae, Genus Ursus, Species maritimus |
"And I am my brother's keeper, and I shall fight his fight, and speak the word for beast and bird, till the world shall set things right." Edna Wheeler Wilcox
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