| Palæos: |  |
The Linnean System |
| SYSTEMATICS | Family |
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| Palæos: | |
The Linnean System |
| SYSTEMATICS | Family |
| Page Back | Unit Up | Unit Back | Unit Home | Systematics Glossary | References |
| Kingdom
Phylum Class Order Family Genus Species |
In the Linnean system (and taxonomic systems based on it), the Family is a taxonomic category between Order and Tribe. It might seem strange that a family is considered higher than a tribe (i.e. a family can contain many tribes, but not vice versa), but such is the way these names are. When there are no Tribes, the Family is a taxonomic category between Order and Genus. More even then an order, a family is a group of organisms among which the differences are quite minor, e.g. Equiidae - horses and their relatives, Ceratopsidae - horned dinosaurs, or Hominidae, man and ape-men (although again the differences among Hominids are extremely slight, here we see a chauvanistic taxonomic inflation, elevated a probably genus rank to family ranking). Some families contain thousands of species, others might only have a single species. |
| rank | suffix |
| Magnafamily | - idea |
| Superfamily | - oidea or -acea |
| Family | - idae |
| Subfamily | -inae |
