Mammoth Memory

Remember the order of ranks 1

The following story should help you to remember the order of the seven ranks:

1.  Kingdom

 Mnemonic of king travelling to every school in his kingdom

A king decided to visit every school in his kingdom to find out how clever the children were. He jumped into the first taxi to take him on his mission.

2.  Phylum (pronounced “file ’em”)

The rest of the kings followers, the last 6 ranks of taxonomy, following on

All the king’s helpers filed into the rest of them – file ’em (phylum) – to follow the king on his mission.

NOTE:

When this is taught in a classroom it would be important to stop here and summarise what you have learnt so far:

  • Taxonomy is the classification of living things
  • Taxonomy was developed by Carl Linnaeus
  • The first classification is kingdom
  • The second classification is phylum

 

3.  Class

Image to depict children behaving badly in the first class the king visited  

The first class they went into was full of badly behaved children sticking their tongues out at the teachers and not getting on with their work.

4.  Order

Image of the king showing the children some order and how to behave

So the king instructed the teachers to bring the children to order. 

5.  Family

Graphic of the king demanding a meeting of the family at the school

One child, a boy, continued to misbehave, so the king decreed that the child’s family be brought to school to discuss how the boy’s behaviour could be improved.

6.  Genus (pronounced “jean-us”)

Graphic of the family suggesting that the child is a frustrated genius

At the meeting, the mum and dad insisted their child was a genius (genus), but with an overactive mind that sometimes led to bad behaviour.

7.  Species

Mnemonic showing the child is a genius when older she will write the kings speeches as species

Testing the child on a variety of topics, the king and his helpers realised that this was true – he was indeed brilliant, particularly at writing. The king resolved that when the boy was older, he would be employed to write all his speeches (species). 

 

Summary

  • Taxonomy is the classification of living things
  • Taxonomy was developed by Carl Linnaeus
  • The first classification is kingdom
  • The second classification is phylum
  • The third classification is class
  • The fourth classification is order
  • The fifth classification is family
  • The sixth classification is genus
  • The seventh classification is species
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