Species

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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. wolf (Canis lupus [cane-is loo-puss]) are one species. Humans are another species.

Species is a word for a specific 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.

Species is spaghetti in the mnemonic, or a saying to help a person remember something, King Phillip Came Over For Great Spaghetti.

Example

  • Kingdom - Animalia (an-ih-mail-e-a)
  • Phylum - Chordata (core-dat-a)
  • Class - Aves (ah-vase)
  • Order - Gaviiformes (gay-vih-ih-for-mez)
  • Family - Gaviidae (gay-vih-ih-dee)
  • Genus - Gavia (gay-vih-ah)
  • Species Gavia immer (gay-vih-ah imm-err)
  • Common name is Common Loon or Great Northern Diver.

See also

Wikibooks in Simple English has more about this subject:

More about Species: endangered species list, invasive species, origin of species, new species, bird species, endangered species act, current list of endangered species, endangered species north america, fish species,

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