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Question
Define a taxon. What is meant by taxonomic hierarchy. Give a flow diagram from the lowest to highest category for a plant and an animal. What happens to the number of individuals and number of shared characters as we go up the taxonomical hierarchy?
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Solution
A taxon is a level of biological taxonomy, such as phylum, order, family, and so on.
Taxonomic Hierarchy: Distinct taxa have different levels in taxonomy. This means that a specific taxon will only appear after another specific taxon. Species, for example, always come after the genus and never the other way around.
Plant Categories Flow Chart
Kingdom→Division→Class→Order→Family→Genus→Species
Flow Chart of Animal Categories
Kingdom→Phylum→Class→Order→Family→Genus→Species
The common characteristics decrease as we progress up the taxonomic ladder. All members of a species, for example, will have the greatest amount of common traits. All members of a genus, on the other hand, will have a smaller number of common characters. The number of individuals increases as we go up the taxonomic hierarchy.
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