carl linnaeus
The Levels of Classification Taxonomy which literally means arrangement law is the science of naming and grouping species to construct an internationally shared classification system. The taxonomic classification system also called the Linnaean system after its inventor, Carl Linnaeus, a Swedish naturalist uses a hierarchical model. A hierarchical system has levels and each group at one of the levels includes groups at the next lowest level, so that at the lowest level each member belongs to a series of nested groups. An analogy is the nested series of directories on the main disk drive of a computer. For example, in the most inclusive grouping, scientists divide organisms into three domains: Bacteria, Archaea, and Eukarya. Within each domain is a second level called a kingdom. Each domain contains several kingdoms. Within kingdoms, the subsequent categories of increasing specificity are: phylum, class, order, family, genus, and species. As an example, the classification levels for the domestic dog are shown in Figure 12.3. The group at each level is called a taxon plural: taxa . In other words, for the dog, Carnivora is the taxon at the order level, Canidae is the taxon at the family level, and so forth. Organisms also have a common name that people typically use, such as domestic dog, or wolf. Each taxon name is capitalized except for species, and the genus and species names are italicized. Scientists refer to an organism by its genus and species names together, commonly called a scientific name, or Latin name. This two-name system is called binomial nomenclature. The scientific name of the wolf is therefore Canis lupus. Recent study of the DNA of domestic.