Question

Define a taxon. What is meant by taxonomic hierarchy? Give a flow diagram from the lowest to highest category for a plant and an animal. What happens to the number of individuals and number of shared characters as we go up the taxonomical hierarchy?

Answer 1

Taxon :

In taxonomic hierarchy each category is a unit of classification which represents a rank and is commonly termed as taxon. E.g., phylum, order, family. etc.

Taxonomic hierarchy :

• In taxonomy, different taxa have their own different levels. Taxonomic hierarchy is the process of arranging various organisms into successive levels of the biological classification.
• This means that a particular taxon will come only after another particular taxon. For example; species always come after the genus and it can never be the other way around.

Flow diagram :

Species--Genus--Family--Order--Class--Division--Kingdom (Taxonomic hierarchy for Plants)

Species--Genus--Family--Order--Class--Phylum--Kingdom (Taxonomic hierarchy for animals)

Change in the number of organisms and shared characters :

• Organisms are grouped based on homologies, ( similarities in anatomical, morphological, and physiological features) into taxa and these groups are given taxonomical ranks: kingdom, phylum, class, order, family, genus, and species.
• The lower taxa have more shared characters and as we move up the hierarchy the number of shared characters decreases.
• The number of organisms increases as we go up the hierarchy as the upper taxa has organisms with more general characters.