EVERYDAY SCIENCE

Detailed explanation-1: -The current taxonomic system now has eight levels in its hierarchy, from lowest to highest, they are: species, genus, family, order, class, phylum, kingdom, domain. Thus species are grouped within genera, genera are grouped within families, families are grouped within orders, and so on (Figure 1).

Detailed explanation-2: -In the hierarchy of biological classification, genus comes above species and below family.

Detailed explanation-3: -Species. The species is the most fundamental unit in taxonomy and ranks at the base of the biological classification hierarchy. Members of the same species share the same evolutionary history and are more closely related to each other than they are to any other organisms, including other members of the same genus.

Detailed explanation-4: -The genus is the generic name that includes closely related species; the gray wolf, for example, is classified as Canis lupus and is a close relative of the coyote found in North America and designated as Canis latrans, their systematic relation indicated by their sharing the same genus name, Canis.

Detailed explanation-5: -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.