The New Dictionary of Cultural Literacy, Third Edition. 2002.
Linnean classification
A way of organizing living things. In biology, plants and animals have traditionally been classified by the structure of their bodies, in a descending hierarchy of categories: kingdom, phylum, class, order, family, genus, and species. For example, human beings are classified as belonging to the animal kingdom, the phylum of chordates, the class of mammals, the order of primates, the genus Homo, and the species sapiens. The scheme is based on a system developed by the Swedish scientist Carolus Linnaeus in the eighteenth century.
There is a debate among scientists about whether the traditional classification system should be retained. Some argue that classifying living things by their descent, with all descendants of a single ancestor being grouped together, is more in keeping with the ideas of evolution (seecladistics). Others want to classify organisms by their genetic makeup, using sequences in DNA or RNA. Each of these schemes provides a different way of ordering living things, but there is no “right” way to accomplish this task.
The classification of the Siberian tiger and romaine lettuce shown here are presented in descending order, beginning with the broadest category. Biologists who specialize in classification (called taxonomists) are constantly refining their terms as new relationships between organisms are recognized.
Kingdom
Kingdom
Animalia (animals)
Plantae (plants)
Phylum
Division
Chordata (chordates)
Tracheophyta (vascular plants)
Subphylum
Class
Vertebrata (vertebrates)
Angiospermae (flowering plants)
Class
Subclass
Mammalia (mammals)
Dicotyledonae (dicotyledons)
Order
Order
Carnivora (carnivores)
Campanulales or Campanulatae (bellflowers, lobelias, composites)
