The Linnaean System
Systematics Phylum

Phylum

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Definition: Kingdom
Phylum
Class
Order
Family
Tribe
Genus
Species

Phylum

Kingdom
Phylum
Class
Order
Family
Genus
Species
Referred to as 'Division" in the case of Plants and Bacteria. In the standard Linnaean system (and taxonomic systems based on it), a Phylum is the taxonomic category between Kingdom and Class.  A phylum is a major ranking of organisms, defined according to the most basic body-parts shared by that group.  e.g. Chordata (animals with a notochord - vertebrates and others), Arthropoda (animals with a  jointed exoskeleton) Mollusca animals with a shell-secreting mantle), Angiosperma (flowering plants), and so on. A number of traditional Phyla - e.g. Protozoa, possibly Arthropoda - are probably invalid (polyphyletic).

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page by M. Alan Kazlev (Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported License)
page uploaded 20 May 2002
checked ATW021130
(originally uploaded on Kheper site 13 December 1998)
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