Genera

Genera is a term used in the field of biology to refer to a rank in the biological taxonomy. It is above the level of species and below the level of family. In the hierarchy of biological classification, genera comes after the order of family, and is followed by species.

Definition

A genus (plural: genera) is a rank in the hierarchy of biological classification, also known as taxonomy. It is one of the ranks in the classification system that groups together closely related species. The name of a genus is always written with a capital letter and is italicized.

Role in Taxonomy

In the Linnaean system of classification, the genus is a higher rank than species but is lower than family. It is used in the binomial nomenclature (the scientific naming of species) where it forms the first part of the name of a species. For example, in the name for humans, Homo sapiens, "Homo" is the genus.

Examples

Some examples of genera include Canis (which includes dogs and wolves), Felis (which includes cats), and Homo (which includes humans).

See Also

• Species
• Family
• Order
• Class
• Phylum
• Kingdom
• Domain

References

Genera Resources
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