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Can you think of a task more daunting than classifying all of Earth's life
forms, which may be as high as 50 million? Or even of classifying a single
group, such as the 25,000 species of orchid? So why bother? Keeping track of
the amazing diversity of life and being able to compare and contrast
different organisms in the tree of life is valuable in and of itself. But
taxonomy, as this field is called, can also lead to surprising insights and
discoveries, from finding new drugs to giving scientists a systematic way to
monitor the effects of global environmental change.
Scientists classify organisms into a hierarchy that begins with kingdom and
works its way deeper into phylum, class, order, family, genus, and species.
If you're new to this system, it can be a challenge simply remembering these
categories. Here's a mnemonic referring to 16th-century Spanish exploration
that might help: King Philip Crossed Over For Gold and Silver.
In this feature, you'll step into the shoes of a taxonomist and classify
three forms of life: a plant, an animal, and a...—well, you'll need to
figure that one out for yourself.
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Flash is a plug-in that allows for increased interactivity. If you can see
the animated boxes at left, the plugin is already installed. If you do not see
the boxes, you can install the Flash plugin, or select this feature's
non-Flash version.
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