Order

Order (biology)

In biology, an order (Latin: ordo) is a higher rank used in the classification of organisms and recognized by the nomenclature codes. The well-known ranks in descending order of size are life, domain, kingdom, phylum, class, order, family, genus, and species, with order fitting in between class and family. An immediately higher rank, superorder, may be added directly above order, while suborder would be a lower rank.

History and usage

The order as a distinct rank of biological classification having its own distinctive name (and not just called a higher genus (genus summum)) was first introduced by the German botanist Augustus Quirinus Rivinus in his classification of plants that appeared in a series of treatises in the 1690s. Carl Linnaeus was the first to apply it consistently to the division of all three kingdoms of nature (minerals, plants, and animals) in his Systema Naturae.

Hierarchy of ranks

In botany, the ranks are Division, Class, Order, Family, Genus, and Species. An order may be divided into suborders. In zoology, the Linnaean orders were used more consistently. That is, the orders in the zoology part of the Systema Naturae refer to natural groups, some of which are still recognized in modern classifications. This means that in botanical nomenclature, the definition of order has a different meaning than in zoology.

See also

• Biological classification
• Taxonomy (biology)
• Rank (botany)
• Rank (zoology)

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