Classification of animals
Classification and taxonomy is an independentbranch of biology, which develops the principles of dividing living organisms into certain groups according to external characteristics and the peculiarities of the structure of their organisms. In the common people, under the word "animals" people usually mean mammals, not including in this section birds, fish, insects, etc. In biology, there are five kingdoms of living organisms: the kingdom of Bacteria, the kingdom of protozoa, the kingdom of Mushrooms, the kingdom of plants and the kingdom of animals. . Animals differ from other organisms by heterotrophic nutrition and a mobile way of life.
The classification of the animal world is constructed in such a way that each of its representatives has a type, class, order, family, genus and species.
Types were introduced into science by the French zoologistGeorges Cuvier in the early nineteenth century. The classification of animals proposed by the scientists contained four types: vertebrates, mollusks, arthose and radiant. Today there are more than ten types of animals, the most voluminous and widespread of them are chordates.
The classification of animals includes their division intofive classes: fish, birds, amphibians, reptiles and mammals. The criteria for classifying a living organism to a particular class are its appearance and certain features of the structure and functioning of organs and systems. So, for example, fish have a one-chambered heart, reptiles - three-chambered, and mammals - four-chamber with a division of blood into arterial and venous. In nature, the classes of animals appeared precisely in the order in which they are named here: the first were fish, and the perfect organisms were mammals led by man.
Further, the classification of animals suggests dividingEach class is divided into several groups. There are, for example, a group of artiodactyls, a squad of ungulates, a detachment of insectivores. In the taxonomy of plants, a similar taxon is not called a detachment, but an order.
The family unites representatives, maximallysimilar to each other and having a common ancestor. For example, the cat family includes a cat, a lynx, a tiger, a lion, a jaguar, a leopard, a snow leopard, an ocelot, etc. The dog family combines wolves, coyotes, dogs, foxes,
The family follows the family, and the genus follows the species. The species is the smallest unit of taxonomy. The criterion for distinguishing the totality of individuals into a single species is their ability to interbreed among themselves and to give fertile offspring. Sometimes biologists talk about the existence of another feature that allows to recognize the aggregate of individuals as a single species: they must live within a certain range. However, this feature is formal, the isolation of one individual from the others does not stop its belonging to their species. Separating this feature, scientists wanted to say that when living individuals of the species in different parts of the globe, its reproduction would be difficult. Mating individuals of different species often leads to the birth of hybrids, but such hybrids are no longer able to reproduce their own kind.
Classification of animals is done byassigning a name to each new species and determining its belonging to taxa according to morphological and genetic characteristics. The name of the species is written in Latin, so that scientists of different countries could more easily work on studying its populations.
In biology, there are alternativessystematics. The classification of animals presented by Borges was repeatedly discussed by philosophers and biologists. The scheme of the division of animals into groups is absent, but an exhaustive list of the groups themselves is presented. Borges writes that according to the Chinese encyclopedia, all animals are divided into tame; belonging to the Emperor; sirens; fabulous; countless; running like crazy; stray dogs; embalmed; similar from afar to flies; milk pigs; broke the flower vase; painted with the finest brush of camel hair; included in the classification; other. This classification of animals is strange and incomprehensible, it is not recognized by science.
