Danny Spernak, age 11, of Monongahela, PA. for his question:
Are all animals classified?
Every known animal is classified according to certain features and he is given a name in the Latin language. Latin is no longer the everyday language of any country. Living languages, such as English, tend to grow, New words are added and the meanings of old words are often altered. Latin is a dead language, no new words are added and no older words change their meanings. Scholars of all nations know Latin and each word has the sane meaning all over the world. The scientific name of every animal is world‑wide and understood by every scientist, no matter what his native tongue*
Miss Puss, for example, has a comxaan name of her own in every language. For example she is le chat, the oh is pronounced as sh and the t is not pronounced at all. But in the world‑wide language of science she is Felis domestica, Felis gives the name of her genus, singular of genera. Domestics gives the name of her species. The name of the genus should be spelled with a capital letter and, in a science textbook# you will find both Latin names printed in italics.
A species is a group of animals so much alike that they seem to have had the same ancestor, Tabby cats and calicos, blacks and whites and ginger marmalades all belong to the same species.
A genus is made up from a number of closely related species, The lynx and the bobcat, the lovely ocelot and many small wild cats of Africa and Asia belong in different species. But these species are enough alike to be grouped in the same Felis genus with Miss Puss.
The next group is the family, and all the cats in the world belong in the animal family Felidae. An animal family is a group of genera with very similar features,
Every cat, from. the tiger, to Miss fuss, is a sensitive bundle of nerves and high tension muscles. Every cat is a fang‑toothed, sharp‑slaved prowler and pouncer.
The scientific groups are now getting bigger and there are greater differences among the members. A group, called an order, is made up from a number of families having one or more outstanding features in common: The order carnivore. includes all the families of the meat‑eating mammals. The cat family, the dog family and many others are carnivores.
The next grouping is called the class, which is made up from a number of similar orders. The order mammalia includes all the warm‑blooded, fur‑coated creatures who give birth to live babies. Miss Puss, of course, is a mammal.
A number of classes are put together to form a great tribe, called a phylum, the plural of which is phyla. Miss Puss, along with all the backboned animals in the world, belongs in the noble sub‑phylum of Vertebrata, Along with the pigs and the chickens, the sheep and the deer, the frogs and the eagles, she is a vertebrate animal.