The Living World

The earth it is the home of living forms, the earth gives a wonderful
environment to live and thrive. The abundance and type of diversity
varies greatly across the earth. The living forms have unique
characteristics and local names in different places. In order to give
universal identity; binomial system of nomenclature was introduced.
Taxonomy includes identification well as classification of organisms into
taxonomic categories according to taxonomic hierarchy.

Biodiversity:
● On the earth, there are 1.7 - 1.8 million recognized and described species. We refer the
number and types of organisms present on earth as biodiversity.
● Identification is the process of learning an organism's qualities or characteristics such that
one can recognize it anywhere in the world.
● The naming of identified organisms follows a universally recognized standard approach.
This is referred to as Nomenclature.

Nomenclature:
● Local names, which vary from location to location and language to language, are
frequently given to the species that surround us. It was necessary to standardize their
names as a result. In order to give each creature a scientific name, scientists developed
various procedures.
● For the purpose of naming plants and animals scientifically, the International Code for
Botanical Nomenclature (ICBN) and International Code for Zoological Nomenclature
(ICZN) were established. A generic designation called "Genus" and a particular epithet
called "Species" make up the scientific name. Binomial Nomenclature is the name given
to this naming scheme. It was offered by Carolus Linnaeus.
● Mango, for instance, are referred to as Mangifera indica, with "indica" denoting the
species and "Mangifera" denoting the genus.

Universal rules of Binomial nomenclature

● The majority of biological names are in Latin. Regardless of where they came from, they
are Latinized or derived from Latin.
● In a biological name, the genus is denoted by the first word, and the specific epithet is
denoted by the second.
● When a biological name is written by hand, the Latin roots of each word are indicated by
underlining them separately or printing them in italics.
● The specific epithet begins with a small letter, but the first word identifying the genus
begins with a capital letter. For example: Mangifera indica

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The Living World

Taxonomy:
● Based on the characteristics of the organisms, scientists have categorized them into
convenient groups. This procedure is known as organism classification.
● A taxon is a collection of a single population or several populations of the same organism.
It may be used to refer to any categorization level in a hierarchy.
● The field of study known as taxonomy focuses on the ideas and methods for
characterizing, classifying, and nomenclature of organisms. Living things may be divided
into many taxa based on shared characteristics.

Systematics:
● The study of evolutionary links among organisms is known as systematics;
● The term "systematics" is derived from the Latin word "systema," which refers to the
orderly organization of creatures.
● Systema Naturae was the name of Linnaeus’s book.

Overview of taxonomic categories:

● Classification requires a hierarchy of steps, each of which stands for a rank or category. It
is not a one-step procedure.
● The category is known as a taxonomic category because it is a component of the general
taxonomic arrangement, and the taxonomic hierarchy is made up of all categories.
● The term taxon is a collection of organisms, and a category designates the taxon's rank.
● A common classification system, including hierarchies such as the kingdom, phylum or
division (for plants), class, order, family, genus, and species, has been developed as a
result of taxonomic research of all known organisms.
● The lowest level of classification for all organisms, including those in the plant and animal
kingdoms, is species.

Species:
● In taxonomic research, a collection of individual organisms having underlying similarities
is referred to as a species.
● Based on the obvious morphological variations, one species should be able to be
distinguished from the other closely related species.
● Take Mangifera indica (mango), Solanum tuberosum (potato), and Panthera leo (lion)
into consideration. The initial terms Mangifera, Solanum, and Panthera are genera and
reflect a higher level of taxon or category, but the three names indica, tuberosum, and
leo are particular epithets.

Genus:
● A genus is made up of a collection of related species that share a greater number of
characteristics than species from other genera.
● For instance, although potato and brinjal are two separate species, they both fall within
the Solanum genus.

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The Living World

Family:
● In comparison to genus and species, the related genera are put together in the category
called family, family have even fewer shared characteristics.
● For instance, the family Solanaceae includes the three genera Solanum, Petunia, and
Datura among plants.

Order:
● The aggregates of characteristics are often used to identify order and other higher
taxonomic groups.
● Because order is a higher category, it is made up of families that share certain shared
characteristics.
● For example, the order Polymoniales includes plant families like Convolvulaceae and
Solanaceae, these are put together mostly due to their shared floral characteristics.

Class:
● Related orders are included in this category.
● For instance, For example, order Primata and order Carnivora are placed in class
Mammalia along with other orders.

Phylum:
● The next higher group, known as Phylum, is made up of classes that have common shared
characteristics.
● Based on shared characteristics including the presence of a notochord and a dorsal
hollow neural system, many animals are classified as belonging to the phylum Chordata.
● Plant classes that share a few characteristics belong to a higher category called Division.

Kingdom
● In the hierarchy of animal categorization, kingdom Animalia is the highest category given
to all creatures belonging to various phyla. On the other hand, all plants from different
divisions are included in the Kingdom Plantae.
● In Figure below, the taxonomic groupings are shown from species to kingdom in
increasing order. These divisions are wide. To provide a more accurate and scientific
placement of distinct taxa, taxonomists have also created sub-categories inside this
hierarchy.

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Figure: Taxonomic groups are arranged hierarchically and in ascending order

The following table indicates different organisms with their taxonomic categories
Common Biological Genus Family Order Class Phylum/division
name Name
Man Homo sapiens Homo Hominidae Primata Mammalia Chordata
Housefly Musca Musca Muscidae Diptera Insecta Arthropoda
domestica
Mango Mangifera Mangifera Anacardiaceae Sapindales Dicotyledonae Angiospermae
indica
Wheat Triticum Triticum Poaceae Poales Monocotyledo Angiospermae
aestivum -nae

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