Taxonomy Flashcards
Kingdom
second highest taxonomic rank below domain. Kingdoms are divided into smaller groups called phyla. Traditionally, textbooks from the United States used a system of six kingdoms (Animalia, Plantae, Fungi, Protista, Archaea, and Bacteria) while British, Australian and Latin American textbooks used five kingdoms (Animalia, Plantae, Fungi, Protoctista, and Prokaryota/Monera). Some recent classifications based on modern cladistics have explicitly abandoned the term “kingdom”, noting that the traditional kingdoms are not monophyletic, i.e., do not consist of all the descendants of a common ancestor.
Phylum
In biology, a phylum (/ˈfaɪləm/; plural: phyla)[note 1] is a taxonomic rank below kingdom and above class. Traditionally, in botany the term division is used instead of “phylum”, although in 1993 the International Botanical Congress accepted the designation “phylum”.[1][2] The kingdom Animalia contains approximately 35 phyla; the kingdom Plantae contains 12 phyla. Current research in phylogenetics is uncovering the relationships between phyla, which are contained in larger clades, like Ecdysozoa and Embryophyta.
Class
a taxonomic unit, a taxon
Order
a taxonomic unit, a taxon
Family
a taxonomic unit, a taxon
Genus
a taxonomic unit, a taxon
Species
a taxonomic unit, a taxon
Domain
(also superregnum, superkingdom, empire, or regio) is the highest taxonomic rank of organisms in the three-domain system of taxonomy designed by Carl Woese (replaced the two-empire system), an American microbiologist and biophysicist. According to the Woese system, introduced in 1990, the Tree of Life consists of three domains: Archaea (a term which Woese created), Bacteria, and Eukarya. The first two are all prokaryotic microorganisms, or single-celled organisms whose cells have no nucleus. All life that has a nucleus and membrane-bound organelles, and most multi-cellular life is included in the Eukarya.
