How do scientists classify living things?
How do scientists classify living things?
The members of each group of living things share a set of special features unique to that group.
For example, plants contain a chemical called chlorophyll that they use to make their own food (it also makes them green). Every member of the plant kingdom shares this characteristic.
Scientists are always looking for these characteristics or observable features which allow them to group different species together and see how they are related to each other.
By comparing the features of different animals they have been able to classify them further, dividing each of the kingdoms into smaller groups. To understand the whole thing a bit more it is good to look at an example.
The red squirrel belongs to the Kingdom Animalia. Each kingdom is divided into groups, and these groups are divided into smaller groups.
Each level of group has a special name:
- Phylum
- Order
- Class
- Family
- Genus
- Species
By examining its observable features scientists have determined that the red squirrel belongs to the phylum Chordata, class Mammalia and so on, down to its genus and species: Sciurus vulgaris.
By now you should be getting the hang of how scientists classify living things. Explore the rest of Animal ID to see how we divide the animal kingdom into groups and have a look at the Tree of life.
