Introduction to Taxonomy

J2 Biology: Introduction to Taxonomy

by Anthony Forrette

​Biological Taxonomy is the idea that we can classify all living organisms in a hierarchy that best describes the relationship among them. It starts off with the most generalized description of living things, the Domain, then moves into less generalized until we reach Species, the most specific.

The order of taxonomic ranking is:

Domain

Kingdom

Phylum

Class

Order

Family

Genus

Species

An easy way to remember these categories is with this sentence:

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Did King Philip Come Over For Great Spaghett

​What Is A Taxon?

You might be asking how this relates to a taxon.

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A taxon is any taxonomic category. Basically, it's a catch all term for the classification rankings; i.e. domain, kingdom, phylum, etc. Quite often, we see taxon used in regards to the more specific categories.

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For example, instead of referring to the actual rank that we are talking about, scientists might say, 'The taxon primates...' when referring to humans' taxonomic family.

​An Example

So what does the taxon primates' refer to? It references all old world and new world monkeys, as well as orangutans, humans, apes, and even more organisms.

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One way to indicate the members of a taxon is to use a cladogram. This is a special kind of graph that shows organisms with a common ancestor.

​Lesson Summary

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Biological taxonomy is a system of classifying organisms. It starts off showing how organisms are related in a general sense and moves into the more specific relationships.

Each category has a specific name, for example domain or species; however, the term taxon is a catch all that can be used for any taxonomic ranking.

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A cladogram, a special kind of graph that shows organisms with a common ancestor, is one way to show the members of a taxon.