The Taxonomic System

With 1.5 million known different creatures on earth, it is necessary to have a system to identify them. Through the process of evolution, all of these creatures have some sort of genetic relationship to all of the others, but most of the time this relationship is not immediately apparent. For example – it is easy to see that both salmon and barracudas are fish, but is not so easy to see that a dolphin is more closely related to a cat than to a shark. To make the relationship more clear, a system of classification was developed, which is called the taxonomic method. In taxonomy we begin with a large group and then get more specific step by step.

The scientific name is Latin and a combination of the Genus and the species, but most people will prefer to use the common name in their own language.