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This is usually used to describe organisms without a certain characteristic, as well as organisms in which that characteristic may not be immediately obvious. Examples: Anurognathus ("tailless jaw"); Apus ("footless"); Apteryx ("wingless"); Pteranodon ("wings without teeth"); Anura ("tailless")
In biology, taxonomy (from Ancient Greek τάξις 'arrangement' and -νομία 'method') is the scientific study of naming, defining (circumscribing) and classifying groups of biological organisms based on shared characteristics. Organisms are grouped into taxa (singular: taxon), and these groups are given a taxonomic rank; groups of a given ...
The hierarchy of biological classification's eight major taxonomic ranks.A domain contains one or more kingdoms. Intermediate minor rankings are not shown. In biology, a kingdom is the second highest taxonomic rank, just below domain.
Over 1.5 million living animal species have been described—of which around 1 million are insects—but it has been estimated there are over 7 million in total. Animals range in size from 8.5 millionths of a metre to 33.6 metres (110 ft) long and have complex interactions with each other and their environments, forming intricate food webs.
The binomial name often reflects limited knowledge or hearsay about a species at the time it was named. For instance Pan troglodytes, the chimpanzee, and Troglodytes troglodytes, the wren, are not necessarily cave-dwellers. Sometimes a genus name or specific descriptor is simply the Latin or Greek name for the animal (e.g. Canis is Latin for ...
The type genus for a family-group name is simply the genus that provided the stem to which was added the ending "-idae" (for families). Example: The family name Spheniscidae has as its type genus the genus Spheniscus Brisson, 1760. The type species for a genus-group name is more complicated and follows exactly defined provisions in articles 67 ...
The prokaryotes (the two domains of bacteria and archaea) and certain animals such as bdelloid rotifers [36] freely pass genetic information between unrelated organisms by horizontal gene transfer. Recombination, gene loss, duplication, and gene creation are a few of the processes by which genes can be transferred within and between bacterial ...
The word animal comes from the Latin noun animal of the same meaning, which is itself derived from Latin animalis 'having breath or soul'. [6] The biological definition includes all members of the kingdom Animalia. [7] In colloquial usage, the term animal is often used to refer only to nonhuman animals.