Download Taxonomic Levels - Edgartown School

Taxonomic Levels
“King Philip”
Carolus Linnaeus invented
the Latin binomial system for
naming organisms (which we
still use today) but he also
understood that organisms
could be grouped and subgrouped into categories such
as orders, families, or
kingdoms.
 Kingdom
Traditionally, there
are seven levels
(called “taxa”)
in modern Linnaean
taxonomy.
From largest to
smallest, they are:
(Can you think of any clever ways to
remember them in order?)
Hint: King Philip
 Phylum
 Class
 Order
 Family
 Genus
 Species
The highest level is the Kingdom. Currently, we recognize six kingdoms,
although it used to be just five.
(During the time of Linnaeus they only recognized three!)
1 Animals
2 Plants
3 Fungi
4 Protists
5 Eubacteria
6 Archaebacteria
Most people are familiar with plants, animals, and
even fungi.
Protists are less
familiar to us, because
most of them are
microscopic.
The two bacteria kingdoms are perhaps the most
interesting of all!
(Did you know that there used to
be only one bacteria kingdom, but
it was divided into two kingdoms
when newly discovered primitive
bacteria, called archaebacteria
(or “old bacteria”) were found to
be so different that they belonged
in their own kingdom!)?
Domains.
In recent years, taxonomists have added an eighth taxon
(level) at the very top, above Kingdom.
 It is called the “Domain”.
 There are only three domains.
 Archaebacteria and Eubacteria each have their own domains, and the
other four kingdoms fit into the third domain (Eukarya).
 They are categorized by the structure of their cells and by their DNA!
Even though he never new about archaebacteria, or even
eubacteria, Linnaeus’ taxonomy system is how we still classify
organisms to this day!