Taxonomy System

Well look at that! Not even three minutes after my last post I suddenly gained the ability to view our wonderful Journal again! Well, now that that's over and done with on to the next lesson!

Taxonomy system

Perhaps this should be called a sub-lesson, since technically this isn't really a lesson in my textbook at all. Each class in the Taxonomy system is a rank/class, organizing each organism into their own category (and it's funny how textbooks never really get around to explaining what each rank means. So much for those long, incredibly dull paragraphs). For each Rank there are sub-categories, which are "immediate minor ranks" used to arrange organisms even further. We'll have a sample of some sub-categories for each rank, but for the most part we'll just explain the general ranks for now. If you are truly interested in these sub-categories than comment and we shall proceed in making a post about them.

• Kingdoms - The Kingdom rank is the Highest rank out of the following ranks/classes. The Kingdoms are composed of six different categories: Animalia, Plantae, Fungi, Protista, Archaebacteria (or Archae), and Eubacteria (or Bacteria). One sub-rank is Subkingdom. There is also the class of SuperKingdom which, according to my research*, is a class just above Kingdoms.
• Phylum (or Division) - In Botany (the study of plants; anything in the Plant Kingdom) the term "Division" is used instead of Phylum. A rank lower than Kingdom, organisms in this rank are arranged under different groups based on their similarity. For example: Cheetahs, Elephants, and Hippopotamus' are all members of the Phylum Chordata because they all have similar qualities (in this case the most important being the structure of their spine). Examples of sub-ranks are Subphylum and Infraphylum.
• Class - A Class is similar to the Phylum rank, grouping together animals that have similar qualities within a group in Phylum. Reptilia, Insecta, and Mammalia are three groups within the Class rank. Some sub-categories: Subclass and Infraclass.
• Order - Just as with the other ranks, Order breaks down organisms from the previous ranks into even more specific groups. In the Insecta Class there is the group Diptera, which includes insects possessing two pairs of wings (such as flies and mosquitoes). Example of sub-categories: Suborder.
• Family - Groups found in the Family rank can include a large amount of species that are extremely similar (again, like with the other ranks, these groups are all within other, larger groups in previous ranks). For example: Arecaceae is a group within the Family rank and ever one of its members is some type of Palm tree. Some sub-categories for the Family rank are Subfamily and Infrafamily.
• Genius - Each Genera (group within the Genius rank) has a designed type, something something unique to that particular organism. Subgenius and Infrafamily are two minor ranks (sub-catergories) for Genius.
• Species - We're finally at the bottom! *collapses from exhaustion and then proceeds to type from the floor* The Species is the basic rank, known by pretty much everyone. Within Families you have specific Species that define each type of organism from their closely related cousin, aunt, etc. There is only one type of organism for each species.

We're done! That took longer than I thought.