Question:
Define a taxon. What is meant by taxonomic hierarchy? Give a flow diagram from the lowest to the highest category for a plant and an animal. What happens to the number of individuals and number of shared characters as we go up the taxonomical hierarchy?
Solution:
The grouping of organisms at any level is known as Taxon. This can be ranked as
Species-genus-family-order-class-phylum/division-kingdom
As we go from species to kingdom there is a decrease in the number of common characteristics and the number of individuals goes on increasing. Higher the category, it will be very difficult to determine the relationship to other taxa at the same level.