Classification of Living Organisms

The Linnaean system

• Traditionally living things are classified into groups by their structure and characteristics, in a system developed by Carl Linnaeus
• The groups, from largest to smallest: kingdom, phylum, class, order, family, genus, species
• Organisms are named by the binomial system: genus then species, in italics with a capital for the genus: Homo sapiens
• Two organisms in the same genus (sharing the first name) are more closely related than two in the same family but different genera