Different taxa of the Taxonomic Hierarchy: The taxonomic categories consist of 88 taxa. The following is a brief description of the taxonomic ranks that make up the taxonomic hierarchy. In this post we will study about Different taxa of the Taxonomic Hierarchy.

Different taxa of the Taxonomic Hierarchy

1. Species: It is the basic unit and the lowest taxonomic category, which consists of one or more individuals of a population. It was proposed by John Ray. An organism that can interbreed to produce fertile offspring is termed a species.
2. Genus: It is the larger unit of the taxon; it comprises a group of related species, which has more characters common compared to species of the genera. In other words, genera are the aggregates of closely related species.
3. Family: It comprises a group of related genera. In other words, family is the aggregate of closely related genera.
4. Order: It is a group of one or more related families that possess some similar correlated characters, which are lesser in number as compared to a family or genera.
5. Class: It is a major category, which includes related orders.
6. Phylum or Division: It is a taxonomic category higher than class and lowers in rank to the kingdom. The term ‘Phylum’ is used for animals, while ‘Division’ is commonly employed for plants. It consists of more than one class having some similar correlated characters.
7. Kingdom: It is the highest category in taxonomy. A kingdom includes all the organisms which share a set of distinguished characters.
8. Domain: A domain is the highest (most general) rank of organisms. Linnaeus did invent some of the taxonomic ranks, but he did not invent the domain rank, which is relatively new. The term domain was not used until 1990,1990, over 250250 years after Linnaeus developed his classification system in 1735.1735. The three domains of life are Bacteria, Archaea, and Eukaryota.

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By Team Learning Mantras