Class (biology)

In biological classification, class (Latin:

classis) is a taxonomic rank, as well as a
taxonomic unit, a taxon, in that rank.[a]
Other well-known ranks in descending
order of size are life, domain, kingdom,
phylum, order, family, genus, and species,
with class fitting between phylum and
order.
The hierarchy of biological classification's eight major

taxonomic ranks. A Phylum contains one or more

classes. Intermediate minor rankings are not shown.

Definition
The class as a distinct rank of biological
classification having its own distinctive
name (and not just called a top-level genus
(genus summum)) was first introduced by
the French botanist Joseph Pitton de
Tournefort in his classification of plants
that appeared in his Eléments de
botanique, 1694.

Insofar as a general definition of a class is

available, it has historically been
conceived as embracing taxa that
combine a distinct grade of organization --
i.e. a 'level of complexity', measured in
terms of how differentiated their organ
systems are into distinct regions or sub-
organs -- with a distinct type of
construction, which is to say a particular
layout of organ systems.[1] This said, the
composition of each class is ultimately
determined by the subjective judgement of
taxonomists. Often there is no exact
agreement, with different taxonomists
taking different positions. There are no
objective rules for describing a class, but
for well-known animals there is likely to be
consensus.

In the first edition of his Systema Naturae

(1735).[2] Carl Linnaeus divided all three of
his kingdoms of Nature (minerals, plants,
and animals) into classes. Only in the
animal kingdom are Linnaeus's classes
similar to the classes used today; his
classes and orders of plants were never
intended to represent natural groups, but
rather to provide a convenient "artificial
key" according to his Systema Sexuale,
largely based on the arrangement of
flowers. In botany, classes are now rarely
discussed. Since the first publication of
the APG system in 1998, which proposed a
taxonomy of the flowering plants up to the
level of orders, many sources have
preferred to treat ranks higher than orders
as informal clades. Where formal ranks
have been assigned, the ranks have been
reduced to a very much lower level, e.g.
class Equisitopsida for the land plants,
with the major divisions within the class
assigned to subclasses and superorders.[3]
The class was considered the highest level
of the taxonomic hierarchy until George
Cuvier's embranchements, first called
Phyla by Ernst Haeckel,[4] were introduced
in the early nineteenth century.

Hierarchy of ranks below and

above the level of class
As with the other principal ranks, Classes
can be grouped and subdivided. Here are
some examples.[b]
 Example
Name Meaning of prefix Example 1 Example 2 Example 4
3[5]

Superclass super: above Tetrapoda Tetrapoda

Class Mammalia Maxillopoda Aves Diplopoda

Subclass sub: under Theria Thecostraca Chilognatha

Infraclass infra: below Cirripedia Neognathae Helminthomorpha

subter: below,
Subterclass Colobognatha
underneath

parvus: small,
Parvclass Neornithes -
unimportant

See also
Cladistics
List of animal classes
Phylogenetics
Systematics
Taxonomy

Notes
 a. When the term denotes taxonomic
units, the plural is classes (Latin
classes).
b. Not all ranks are used in every taxon

References
1. Huxley, Thomas Henry (1853). Henfrey,
Arthur (ed.). Scientific memoirs,
selected from the transactions of
foreign academies of science, and
from foreign journals. Natural history .
Taylor and Francis.
doi:10.5962/bhl.title.28029 .
2. Mayr E. (1982). The Growth of
Biological Thought. Cambridge: The
 Belknap Press of Harvard University
Press. ISBN 0-674-36446-5
3. Chase, Mark W. & Reveal, James L.
(2009), "A phylogenetic classification
of the land plants to accompany APG
III", Botanical Journal of the Linnean
Society, 161 (2): 122–127,
doi:10.1111/j.1095-
8339.2009.01002.x
4. Collins, A.G., Valentine, J.W. (2001).
"Defining phyla: evolutionary pathways
to metazoan body plans." Evol. Dev. 3:
432-442.
5. Classification according to Systema
Naturae 2000, which conflicts with
 Wikipedia's classification. "The
Taxonomicon: Neornithes" . Retrieved
3 December 2010.

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