Family
From Palaeos
| Linnaean hierarchy |
| Kingdom | Phylum | Class | Order | Family | Tribe | Genus | Species |
In the Linnaean hierarchy, (and taxonomic systems based on it), the Family is a taxonomic category between Order and Tribe. It might seem strange that a family is considered higher than a tribe (i.e. a family can contain many tribes, but not vice versa), but such is the way these names are. When there are no tribes, the family is a taxonomic category between Order and Genus. Even more than an order, a family is a group of organisms among which the differences are quite minor, e.g. Equidae - horses and their relatives, Ceratopsidae - horned dinosaurs, or Hominidae, man and ape-men (although again the differences among Hominids are extremely slight, here we see a chauvanistic taxonomic inflation, elevated a probably genus rank to family ranking). Some families contain thousands of species, others might only have a single species.
The suffix used also differs according to whether the group is of animals (-idae) or plants, fungi, or bacteria (-aceae)
In addition there are several intemediate ranks, as shown below:
| rank | suffix (animals) | suffix (plants, fungi, bacteria) |
| Magnafamily (rarely used) | - idea | n/a |
| Superfamily | - oidea | - acea |
| Family | - idae | - aceae |
| Subfamily | - inae | - oideae |
The cladistic revolution means that these various rankings are less often used, or when used, are used in a more non-Linnaean manner - e.g. in vertebrate paleontology (e.g. dinosaur rankings), a clade with two genera may be called a subfamily, and two subfamilies united in a family, even if these rankings are not completely equivalent to the traditional Linnaean practice
Palaeos com - Family
Credits: Palaeos com MAK020520, copied to Palaeos org and table modified MAK060929
