How animal classification works

How animal classification works

Kingdom: All living organisms are first placed into different kingdoms. There are 5 different kingdoms to classify life on earth.

-animals, plants, fungi, bacteria, and protists (single-celled organisms)

Phylum: The animal kingdom is divided into 40 smaller groups known as phylum. Here animals are grouped by their main features. Animals usually fall into one of the five different phylum.

-cnidarian (invertebrates), chordata (vertebrates), arthropods, molluscs, and echinoderms

Class: The phylum group is then divided into even smaller groups known as classes. The chordata (vertebrates) phylum splits up into:

-Mammalia (mammals), Actinopterygii (bony fish), Chondrichthyes (cartilaginous fish), aves (birds), amphibia (amphibians), and Reptilia (reptiles).

Order: Each class is divided into small groups again, known as orders. The reptilia class is broken down into 4 orders:

            -crocodilia, testudines, squamata, and rhynchocephalian

Family: In every order there are different families of animals which all have very similar features.

Genus: Every animal family is then divided into smaller groups called genus. Each genus contains animals that have very similar features and are closely related.

Species: Each individual species within the genus is named after its individual features and characteristics. The names of animals are in Latin so they can be understood worldwide, and consist of two words. The first word in the name will be the genus and the second name indicates the specific species.