Note that the dog is additionally a subspecies: the “familiaris” in Canis lupus familiaris. Organisms also have a common name that people typically use in this case, dog. Carnivora is the name of the taxon at the order level Canidae is the taxon at the family level, and so forth. In other words, dogs are in order Carnivora. The name at each level is also called a taxon. Therefore, the scientific name of the dog is Canis lupus. Scientists generally refer to an organism only by its genus and species, which is its two-word scientific name, in what is called binomial nomenclature. Notice that each name is capitalized except for species and that genus and species names are italicized. For dogs, it is: Eukarya, Animalia, Chordata, Mammalia, Carnivora, Canidae, Canis, and lupus. The full name of an organism technically has eight terms. The kingdom Animalia stems from the Eukarya domain. Dogs and wolves are the same species because they can breed and produce viable offspring, but they are different enough to be classified as different subspecies. Figure: Levels in taxonomic classification: At each sublevel in the taxonomic classification system, organisms become more similar. After kingdoms, the subsequent categories of increasing specificity are: phylum, class, order, family, genus, and species. Within each domain is a second category called a kingdom. For example, after the common beginning of all life, scientists divide organisms into three large categories called domains: Bacteria, Archaea, and Eukarya. Moving from the point of origin, the groups become more specific, until one branch ends as a single species. The taxonomic classification system (also called the Linnaean system after its inventor, Carl Linnaeus, a Swedish botanist, zoologist, and physician) uses a hierarchical model. The common dog, Canis lupus familiaris, is a subspecies of Canis lupus, which also includes the wolf and dingo. Figure: Hierarchical models: The taxonomic classification system uses a hierarchical model to organize living organisms into increasingly specific categories. This organization from larger to smaller, more-specific categories is called a hierarchical system. Then each department further divides into aisles, then each aisle into categories and brands, and then, finally, a single product. One large space is divided into departments, such as produce, dairy, and meats. Think about how a grocery store is organized. Taxonomy (which literally means “arrangement law”) is the science of classifying organisms to construct internationally-shared classification systems with each organism placed into more and more inclusive groupings.
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