British Sign Language Glossaries of Curriculum Terms

BSL Environmental Science Glossary - Classification of Species (detail) definition

Definition: Living organisms are classified into groups depending on their structure and characteristics. The classification of species allows the subdivision of living organisms into smaller and more specialised groups. The first division of living things in the classification system is to put them into one of the five kingdoms. Living things can then be ranked according to:

• kingdom
• phylum
• class
• order
• family
• genus
• species

The number of living things decreases as you go down. Species is the final classification stage.

Here is an example; please see the table for Human beings.

As a species, we are called Homo sapiens.