This American beaver is a kind of mammal with a scientific name of Castor canadensis.
A classification of life system was created by Carl Linnaeus in the 18th century. This classification system sorts all forms of life into its particular species.
Life surrounds us everywhere. It can be overwhelming, confusing, and impossible to keep it all straight. I mean there are animals that fly in the sky, run on or under the ground, and swim in the ocean. There are also trees, flowers, and fungus. In fact, life seems to come in a never ending variety. Luckily for us, scientists have created a system to organize all life into ever smaller and smaller groups. The top level of that system is the Kingdom and the smallest level is a species.
How Are Different Life Forms Organized?
This system organizes life by it’s different characteristics, grouping things together that share similar characteristics. Each member of a group all share certain characteristics or traits and the those groups can be divided into smaller and smaller groups.
For example, all plants are in the same Kingdom, but they are then divided into flowering plants and a separate group of non-flowering plants.
Or within the Kingdom of Animals there are birds, mammals, and reptiles. Each of those share certain characteristics that make them a bird, mammal, or reptile.
The Main Kingdoms Of Life
There are 6 main kingdoms of life. In other words, all forms of life fall into one of these main categories. Notice, that all plants and animals fit into only 2 of the 6. That means there are 4 others that we just don’t think about too often.
Here is a simple diagram that shows the main categories or Kingdoms that all forms of life fit into:
This is a simple overview of the main kingdoms of life.
What Are All The Levels Within This Classification Of Life System?
Scientists have organized life beginning with these six major kingdoms, which are very general, and then get more and more specific as they organize life into smaller and smaller groups. For example, in the diagram above the animal kingdom has two main groups below it – animals with and without a backbone. Then below each of those there are more groups that organize similar animals.
This naming system begins with the most general group and then gets into more and more specific groups. The order is:
Kingdom
Phylum
Class
Order
Family
Genus
Species
An easy way to remember these names is Kings Play Chess On Funny Green Squares. The first letter of each of these is the first letter of the classification system, Kingdom, Phylum, Class, Order, Family, Genus, Species.
The common name of this animal is moose or the scientific name is Alces alces.
Most Forms Of Life Have Two Names – Common & Scientific
Most forms of life have a common name and a scientific name.
The common name is what we commonly describe or call something. For example the common name of the animal in the photo above would be a moose.
The same animal also has a scientific name, which shows exactly where it falls into the classification system. The scientific name generally is the final two names or the genus and species. For example, a moose’s scientific name is Alces alces.