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You are here: Home > Wildlife > Taxonomy
WILDLIFE: TAXONOMY OF MAMMALS, BIRDS, AMPHIBIANS AND REPTILES Taxonomy is the science that studies the classification of living things, an attempt to tidy up the universe of biology into boxes and crates that fit one inside another. The study of similarities and differences between organisms provides a sketch of relationships that allows scientists to draw the nature's great family tree. Every branch is a classification level or taxon, and bears a set of lower-level taxons that split into further subdivisions until touching down on a type of animal which is different from any other: a species. Mammals, birds, amphibians and reptiles are all TETRAPODS, or four-legged animals. Within the natural order, tetrapods are included in other larger categories and at the same time are subdivided into smaller taxons.
SUPERKINGDOM Eukaryota: eukaryotes. Organisms made up of cells containing DNA enclosed in a nucleus.
KINGDOM Metazoa (Animalia): metazoans. Multicellular organisms. BRANCH C (Eumetazoa): eumetazoans. Organisms more complex than mesozoans (parasites of marine invertebrates) and sponges. GRADE II (Bilateria): bilaterals. Organisms with bilateral symmetry. Coelomata: coelomates. The coeloma is an internal cavity coated by a mesodermic membrane, the peritoneus. DIVISION B (Deuterostomia): deuterostomes. Newly formed mouth, anus formed from the blastoporus. PHYLUM Chordata: chordates. They have a notochord, a cellular cord which crosses the body serving as a skeletal axis. SUBPHYLUM Craniata: craniates. They have a skull or cranium, a box covering the brain. Vertebrata: vertebrates. A vertebral column surrounds the nerve cord and acts as a skeletal axis. SUPERCLASS Gnathostomata: gnathostomes. They possess jaws. Teleostomi: teleosteans. Bony skeleton. Euteleostomi: euteleosteans. Bony skeleton. Sarcopterygii: sarcopterygians. Lobe-finned fishes and four-legged vertebrates. 
Tetrapoda: four-legged vertebrates
Amniota: animals that develop an amniotic egg (a fluid-filled cavity containing the embryo). Reptiles, birds and mammals.
Sauropsida: sauropsids. Reptiles and birds.
Sauria (Diapsida): birds, crocodiles and squamous reptiles.
ORDER Crocodylia: crocodiles. 
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