Taxonomy

Discussion in 'Science & Nature' started by Hal Pollner, Jan 5, 2020.

  1. Hal Pollner

    Hal Pollner Veteran Member
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    In Taxonomy, we always hear about and discuss living things in the division: "SPECIES".

    We never hear about the other divisions, such as GENUS, FAMILY, ORDER, CLASS, PHYLUM, KINGDOM, And DOMAIN.

    Why not?

    Hal
     
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  2. Thomas Stearn

    Thomas Stearn Veteran Member
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    Since you haven't received an answer, here is mine.

    I don't know who says that we never hear about the divisions you list. They are used in science but rarely in everyday talk. When we discuss living things we usually refer to species because we're having a certain species in mind and want to talk about that only and not about other living things as well.
    For example, when referring to humans why should we talk about an order when we just mean (the species) humans? That would be confusing because an order includes primates who we don't want to refer to. The lower category family includes apes which wouldn't be relevant either. People would immediately ask "What precisely do you mean?" whenever we use a higher division than species.
    So, outside of a scientific context we rarely need a division other than species.
     
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    Last edited: Jan 6, 2020
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