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PlantsThe members of each group of living things share a set of special features
unique to that group.
For example, plants contain a chemical called chlorophyll that they use to make
their own food (it also makes them green). Every member of the plant kingdom shares
this characteristic.
By comparing the features of different animals they have been able to classify them
further, dividing each of the kingdoms into smaller groups. To understand the whole
thing a bit more it is good to look at an example.
Red squirrel The red squirrel belongs to the Kingdom Animalia. Each kingdom is
divided into groups, and these groups are divided into smaller groups. Each level
of group has a special name:
Phylum
Order
Class
Family
Genus
Species
By examining its observable features scientists have determined that the red
squirrel belongs to the phylum Chordata, phylum Chordata, class Mammalia and so on.
Click the group names in the illustration below to see how the animals in each sub-
group have more and more features in common.
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Mammalia
Order: Rodentia
Family: Sciuridae
Genus: Sciurus
Species: vulgaris
By now you should be getting the hang of how scientists classify living things.
Explore the rest of Animal I.D. to see how we divide the animal kingdom into groups
and have a look at the Tree of life.
Can you answer these questions? Click on a question to discover the answer.