As we go from species to kingdom in a taxonomic hierarchy, the number of common characteristics ______.
decrease
In the Linnaean system of hierarchy, as we go from species to kingdom, the number of common characters decrease. While in the descending order, the number of common characteristics increase. For example, any genus (lower grade of classification) has members with more similarities as compared to a family (a higher grade of classification) which has members with fewer similarities among them.