animal classification
Organizing living creatures
Animal classification is the systematic grouping of animals based on shared characteristics—physical features, evolutionary relationships, or genetic similarities.
The standard hierarchy moves from broad to specific: kingdom, phylum, class, order, family, genus, species.
The animal classification of dolphins places them with mammals, not fish.
Also called taxonomy when referring to the science itself.
- dichotomous keyBranching organism identifier
- kingdomMonarch's ruled territory
- tree of lifeDiagram of evolutionary connections
- phylogenyEvolutionary relationships among organisms
- evolutionary treeDiagram of ancestral relationships
phylum · common ancestor · cladistics · vertebrate · monophyletic group · genus · species name · scientific name · common name · speciation · comparative anatomy · domain · homology · exoskeleton · order · taxon · divergence · living fossil