Question

Explain taxonomic hierarchy tapers downward

Answer 1

Explanation:

According to the history of biological classification, Aristotle, a Greek philosopher classified different animals based on the habitat, characteristics, etc. Later, a Swedish botanist Carolus Linnaeus introduced Taxonomic Hierarchy Categories during the 18th Century, and this system of classification is followed globally till date.

Taxonomic hierarchy refers to the sequence of categories in increasing or decreasing order. Kingdom is the highest rank and species is the lowest rank in the hierarchy.

Let us have a detailed look at Taxonomic Hierarchy in Biological Classification.

What is Taxonomic Hierarchy?

The word “Taxonomy” is derived from a Greek word – “taxis”, meaning arrangement or division, and “nomos”, meaning method.

Taxonomy is a branch of Biology that refers to the process of classifying different living species. A taxon is referred to as a group of organisms classified as a unit.

“Taxonomic hierarchy is the process of arranging various organisms into successive levels of the biological classification either in a decreasing or an increasing order from kingdom to species and vice versa.”

Each of this level of the hierarchy is called the taxonomic category or rank.

In this system of classification, kingdom is always ranked the highest followed by division, class, order, family, genus, and species