Taxonomy mnemonic

Last updated
The hierarchy of scientific classification Scientific classification.svg
The hierarchy of scientific classification

Several mnemonics are used to memorize the scientific classification applied in taxonomy. They are usually constructed with a series of words that begin with the letters KPCOFGS, corresponding to the initials of the primary taxonomic ranks. Words beginning with D (corresponding to domain) are sometimes added to the beginning of the sequence, and words beginning with S (corresponding to subspecies) are sometimes added at the end of the sequence.

Contents

For example, Dear King Phillip Came Over For Good Spaghetti [1] has the first letter of each word corresponding in order to the first letter of the descending order of scientific classification.

MnemonicZoology term
Dear Domain
King Kingdom
Phillip Phylum
Came Class
Over Order
For Family
Good Genus
Spaghetti Species

Zoology mnemonics

Zoology mnemonics, which are used to memorize the scientific taxonomic classification system, include:

Keep in mind that including or excluding "Domain" from this will work either way.

Botany mnemonics

Botanical taxonomy uses the rank of division in place of phylum. Some botany mnemonics follow one of the "King Phillip" variants, with David in place of Phillip.

See also

References

  1. 1 2 Evans, Rod L. (2007). Every Good Boy Deserves Fudge: The Book of Mnemonic Devices. Penguin. ISBN   978-1-4406-2207-6.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.