Animals Classification, Essay Example

The Kingdom animals can be divided into two major groups, invertebrates those which are without a backbone and vertebrates those which are with a backbone.  When someone thinks about the animal, he or she typically think about something like a dog, a cat, a tiger, or a mouse. It has been found that approximately 800,000 species of animals exist on this earth and most of them in the specie called Arthropod phylum.

In reality, some researchers think that if we were to determine the all species in the forests under heavy rain the number of Arthropod specie would reach to more than 10 million species! Many people do not usually imagine about a jellyfish, an earthworm or a clam as an animal. However all of these species are considered the kingdom of animals. The science of classifying animal is named as taxonomy. At present there are 5 kingdoms of animal, i.e.

1. Animalia, which involves  animals;
2. Plantae, which involves plants;
3. Protista, which involves the protists (creatures invisible to the human eye);
4. Fungi, which involves mushrooms, yeast, mold, lichen, etc; and
5. Monera, which involves bacteria of three types.

The next category is called Phylum. There are number of phyla inside to each kingdom. The phyla begin to divide the animals into small and more identifiable groups. The well known phylum is named as Chordata, which includes all animals which are with backbones, i.e., birds, fish, mammals, amphibians, reptiles; Arthropoda, which include spiders, insects, crustaceans, etc. One category is called Mollusca consist on squid, snails and clam; in the same way Annelida consist on worms and Echinodermata includes the sea urchins, starfish, and many, many more.

The Phyla is further divided into Class. The class divides animals into even most famous groups. For instance, the phylum Chordata is further divided into many classes, including Aves that includes birds, Amphibia that include amphibians, Reptilia that include reptiles, Mammalia that consist on mammals, and several others.

The class is further divided into Order. Each class consists on one or more orders. For instance Mammalia can be divided into Rodentia that include mice, rats, Primates that include New and Old World monkeys, Carnivora that includes dogs, cats, weasels, and many more. Then the orders can be divided into families. The order Carnivora can be divided into Canidae that include dogs, Felidae that include cats, Ursidae that include bears, and many more. Order is further divided into genus. For instance the family Felidae can be divided into Acinonyx that include cheetah, Panthera that include lion, tiger, and many more. Finally, the genus is divided into Species. For instance the genus Panthera can be divided into Panthera leo that include lion and Panthera tigris that include, tiger. It must be noticed that the genus is put in front of the species.