Species

For the chemical objects, see Chemical species.

In taxonomy, a species is a kind of animal or plant. All animals or plants that are the same kind belong to the same species. Wolves (Canis lupus) are one species. Humans are another species. Broadly, the idea is that (say) cats breed with cats and produce more cats. This is the basis for deciding to have a species named Felis catus. However, giving a simple definition of 'species' is rather difficult, and many people have tried.

Species is a word for a special kind of living thing, like a crow. Crows and ravens are similar but not the same, so they are together in a more general group called a genus. Then there is a family (like the crow family, which includes crows and ravens as well as jays and magpies), and then an order such as the songbirds, (which has many families in it, such as the crow, thrush and swallow families). The next group is the class; all birds are in the same class. After that is the phylum, such as vertebrates, which is all animals with backbones. Last of all is the kingdom, like the animal kingdom. These are ways to classify living things.

There is a mnemonic to help people remember the order of the divisions which are listed again below: "King Phillip Came Over For Great Spaghetti".

Example

Take as an example the bird called a Common Loon or Great Northern Diver:

• Kingdom: Animalia
• Phylum: Chordata
• Class: Aves
• Order: Gaviiformes
• Family: Gaviidae
• Genus: Gavia
• Species: Gavia immer
• Common name: Common Loon or Great Northern Diver.

Related pages

• Wikispecies